The worst idea in the history of ever
by quietlyfangirlinginthecorner
Summary: Antonio had an imaginary friend as a child...sort of, he wasn't his friend and he wasn't imaginary. Lovino was a pirate and the two are somehow linked, now they're trying to break the link to get Antonio off of Lovino's ship, away from Lovino's family and out of Lovino's life! before he does something stupid. contains Spamano, other pairings and a small amount of Nyo England
1. Chapter 1

**I'm so sorry...it's another pirate one...and another Spamano one...you may well want to kill me after this.**

**I don't own Hetalia.**

Antonio stared at the scowling boy of around his age stood in the clearing of a forest. His reddish brown hair was in his eyes but the boy made no attempt to move it, choosing instead to glare at Antonio. this wasn't the first this had happened. One minute he would be finger painting or playing football and the next he'd be here in the clearing with the Angry boy. He'd been calling him the angry boy because he wouldn't tell Antonio his name, he refused to call Antonio by his name, refering to him instead as 'Bastard' a word which Antonio didn't know the meaning of but was fairly certain wasn't the sort of name he should want to be called.

"Hola" he always said hello to the boy no matter what.

"Fuck off" the boy retorted, this was exactly why Antonio didn't spend a lot of time talking to him, although he had always wondered why the boy was so intent on being grouchy all the time.

"Mama says you aren't real" muttered the boy, placing his hands over his ears and turning away from Antonio.

"What?"

"I thought I said fuck off!" snapped the Angry boy, shooting Antonio what he assumed was the most venomous glare that the boy had in his arsenal. The world around them swam briefly before Antonio woke up curled up in his bed but freezing cold, as though he really had outside moments ago.

* * *

**19 years later **

"Will you be careful with that!" scolded Alice, as Antonio stumbled with the box,

"No, I thought I'd just drop the priceless artifact on the floor" Antonio retorted, he hated the tiny English woman, she was two years younger than him but treated him like a child constantly.

"Don't you get snarky with me, put it down _gently _then get your bloody arse to reception, you have a class to take around the museum" Alice replied, stalking out of the room and flicking her long blonde pigtails behind her, Antonio would have made a very rude gesture had his hands not been preoccupied with holding a chunk of old ship mast..

And then what Alice said sank in. Brilliant, he loved children, this was one of the parts of the job that Antonio truly enjoyed, it must have shown on his face because Alice called back to him "And wipe that idiotic grin off your face!"

Antonio stuck his tongue out before laying down the ancient piece of mast in the display case and making sure that it was at the perfect angle for people to see the slight charring from when the ship was the victim of a fire.

Moving to England had been a terrible idea, the weather was horrible, the food was terrible and worst of all Alice (meany face) Kirkland lived there.

But he hadn't had one of his 'moments' as his mother called them for coming up to eleven years. Although he did have the occasional moment when he felt as though he was going to go into one and he occasionally heard voices, although none seemed to be the voice of the grumpy child.

Antonio stood back, satisfied with his job before he went down to reception to find the class he was meant to give a tour to, he really hoped it was the infant school again, they had loved Antonio's mini lesson about pirates and privateers, he and Alice were both specialists in that particular field.

Much to his dismay however, the class Antonio was showing round were a senior school class, which meant that he didn't get to dress up in his pirate gear, which frankly would have been the highlight of his day.

So Antonio started showing the large group of grumpy teenagers around the exhibition, which was Antonio's pride and joy because he'd put a lot of the items behind the glass.

As Antonio passed the large replica ships wheel he couldn't help but give it a spin, it had become a habit of his and it wasn't going to be one that he was going to be ditching in any kind of a hurry.

They were now approaching a small section of the museum which had some of the more personal items that sailors would have had. Antonio didn't recognize a good number of these because it was Alice who had arranged them. His eyes caught sight of a small comb that was fairly unremarkable but seemed to ring a bell for some reason, well, he'd better get on with the tour, there was no time to get sentimental over a little wooden comb.

"For the love of _fuck!_" shrieked a voice, Antonio shot a stern look at the group of teenagers behind him, really was there any need for language like that?

"Let me go!, you can't do this, I told you everything I know"

Antonio felt dizzy, the floor was swaying beneath him, what on earth, the voice started to overlap, as-though it was saying everything it would normally say over the course of a couple of days. There was now a sharp throbbing pain in Antonio's temple, he didn't need this, this hadn't happened before. The voices yes, but the dizziness and pain in his skull were an un welcome new comer; perhaps if he took a pain killer and had a drink everything would go back to normal? Yeah, he was probably just over worked, that must be it, this couldn't be happening again.

"Are you okay?" asked the tentative voice of the teacher.

"I think I need to sit down" Antonio gasped before slumping forward onto the poor over worked, under-payed, unsuspecting teacher.

He could hear foot steps and then Alice yelling "Out of my way, I'm a qualified first aider"

Antonio had just enough time to say "No, I don't think paracetamol is going to cut it" before everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2 fish and fire

**I still don't own Hetalia, thanks for reading.**

Ugh, his head hurt...what on earth had happened last night? It was most certainly bright here, he must've left the curtains open...no wait, oh God, he'd fainted; Alice would never let him hear the end of this one, Crap.

He could smell something cooking, and fire...FIRE!, but cooking meant the fire was safe, right?

And besides, Antonio was feeling lovely and comfortable in whatever it was he was wrapped in...although the mattress was hard, really hard, and bumpy.

Something annoying prodded his face "Oi, wake up"

Antonio grumbled something unintelligible before rolling over and clenching his eyes shut, but the annoying proddy thing wasn't going to let him sleep.

"Oh no you don't Bastard, I am way more tired than you are, so you don't get to sleep any longer!" snarled the voice in a thick Italian accent.  
Antonio realized that the voice didn't sound at all like any one he knew from the museum, he cracked an eye open to see a young man beside him; he probably would have looked cuter if he wasn't scowling like it was his job and had the beginnings of a beard.

"Hola?" Antonio groaned, taking in the forest around him.

"Don't you Hola me, Idiot, how in the fuck did you end up here?" snapped the owner of the voice.

Antonio shrugged, "I don't know"

"Well fuck if I know either, but get the hell out of my coat!"

Antonio looked down to see that he had a coat draped over him. Where on earth was he? This was most definitely _not _the museum, for a start he was in a forest of some kind with trees that he'd only ever seen in books.

Antonio stood up handed the man his long, brown, tattered coat.

"Who are you anyway?" asked the man

Antonio looked down at the man, who looked very bedraggled and as though he hadn't shaved in a few days, his reddish brown hair hung limply over his eyes and he looked very much the worse for wear.

"Antonio Fernandez Carriedo," Antonio replied "who're you?" he was smiling in the hope that he would not annoy the smaller man any further.

the man folded his arms "Lovino"

Antonio pouted "Do I not get a last name?"

Lovino smirked "No, my last name is a strictly need to know thing"

Antonio furrowed his eyebrows "Why?"

"because I said so" snapped Lovino, who promptly stood up and strode over to a fire with two small fish cooking on it. He pulled them off of the stick he'd been cooking them on and sat down, handing Antonio one.

"Thank you?" Antonio said, unsure of why he was being given a fish in the first place.

"Don't expect that often Bastard," Lovino retorted "I can barely feed my self"

Antonio nodded and started to eat, it wasn't bad...but it wasn't good either, but then again it didn't appear that the man had access to state of the art cooking utensils or spices.

"Hey, Bastard, when did you get marooned?" asked Lovino from his place a safe distance away AKA the other side of the fire.

Antonio looked over at him "I didn't get marooned, I'm not sure how I got here" he answered honestly, because this was looking more and more like that Sci Fi thing that Alice was so obsessed with (No prizes for guessing what that was, if Antonio heard the word Dalek once more he might kill her)

Lovino frowned "No one comes to this god forsaken place of their own free will, and you'd better start making some damn sense." he stood up and took the remains of Antonio's meal from him to get rid of the rubbish but then seemed to think better of it and threw the stick, bones and skin over his shoulder cursing as he did so.

Antonio looked at the ground for a few moments before a question struck him "were you marooned?" he remembered what marooning was from his time in the museum, people were never marooned unless they did something terrible.

Lovino glared at him "No, there was a mutiny and then they left me here, that was not marooning...if I was marooned they'd leave me a damn gun" he muttered the last part in a very bitter tone, if looks could kill Antonio got the feeling that he would have exploded, then been eaten by angry eagles.

Antonio grinned "Were you a captain?"

Lovino punched his arm "I got Mutinied against and all you care about is my rank, you _bastard_"

Antonio laughed and held his hands up in defense "Okay, okay. Sorry. But were you?"

Lovino glared at him "Yeah, but so's my Father and one of my younger brothers"

Antonio grinned "That's amazing, you don't look very old" it was true, he couldn't see much behind the beard but the man was short and seemed very young. There was no grey in his hair and he had no wrinkles around his eyes.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Lovino squeaked indignantly  
"How old are you?" Antonio asked sternly, trying to think of any one in history who had made it to the captain's rank so young.

"I'm twenty three!, my brother Feliciano is twenty and my father is in his forties, okay?" Lovino snapped.

* * *

Lovino did _not _want another person on his island, he'd been there for three weeks now and then that Bastard had shown up, he'd just been stood swaying in the middle of Lovino's camp, said something in English that Lovino hadn't quite caught and then collapsed and curled up in Lovino's coat which he had been using as a mattress.

He'd be lying if he said he was relieved to have some kind of company, but he wasn't so thrilled about sharing the island's few natural resources.

The other thing that was pissing Lovino off was that he was already feeling dirty, itchy and unkempt but since the Antonio-Bastard showed up Lovino was feeling the need to shave even more keenly, he _hated _having a beard with more intensity than was probably natural.

He'd shared a little of his food, but hell if he was going to tell the Bastard where the drinkable water was...probably.

Antonio dressed strangely as well, he wore weird blue fabric trousers, he had no idea what it was called, along with a T-Shirt which was telling someone to shut up, Lovino wasn't entirely sure because his Spanish was _very _rusty; the shoes were what particularly confused Lovino, they were not the boots he was used to seeing, they were instead made of what looked like red sail fabric with white soles, all together Antonio was a bizarre looking man...and clean shaven which was really beginning to piss Lovino off.

* * *

Antonio had forgotten how cold it got at night, apparently years of camping had not prepared him for sleeping outside with no covering. Lovino had taken back his coat and was sleeping peacefully on the other side of the fire. Antonio had refused to leave Lovino alone and had been following him around throughout the afternoon because he hoped that he could find out what had happened, the draw back of this idea was that Lovino had spent a good ninety per-cent of the afternoon swearing at Antonio is several languages.

It was beyond cold, Antonio tried to curl up a little tighter and heard his back click loudly. He swore under his breath and tried to get comfortable again. Maybe if he went to sleep he'd wake up back at home.


	3. Chapter 3 Lovino's coat

**I still don't own Hetalia, thanks for the review ^_^ and for the follows and favourites. **

Antonio woke up freezing, he looked over to see that the fire had gone out. He was literally trembling, and then he realized that he was covered in Lovino's coat, he looked past the smoking remains of the fire towards the smaller man.

Lovino was curled up as tightly as was humanly possible, his shirt was thin and tattered, his trousers were short and he wore no shoes on his feet which were calloused and blistered as though he hadn't worn shoes for months, but then again Antonio had no idea how Long Lovino had been on the island.

Antonio crept towards him and put the coat back on it's owner gently tucking the edges around him to make sure the wind wouldn't blow it off. He personally thought that he had been stunningly stealthy in his retreat, but Lovino woke up almost the moment Antonio turned around "What the fuck are you doing?" he asked in a surprised but very sleepy voice.

Antonio shrugged with a smile "giving you back your coat, you must be freezing"

Lovino sat up, glared and threw the coat back at him "I put it on you so you wouldn't whine all day about how fucking cold you were" Antonio stared at Lovino's bright amber eyes before looking at the floor and then back at the randomly angry ex captain.

"Okay, but now you need it so you don't whine about how cold _you _are" Antonio grinned

"Don't you fucking use my damn logic against me, idiot!" Lovino chuckled before realizing what he was doing and quickly turning the smile into a scowl; but it was too late, Antonio had already heard Lovino

"You know, your laugh is adorable" he blurted before he could stop himself, and looking at the face that Lovino was giving him it might have been a good idea to keep his mouth closed.

Lovino rolled his eyes "I think there might be something wrong with your brain, I'm going to find some food"

Antonio sat and smiled for a few moments before realizing that he was alone in the clearing and tearing after Lovino who was already approaching the stream.

"Loviiiiinoooooo!" Antonio shrieked, not slowing down in enough time and instead managing to run directly into a tree, knocking Lovino into the river in the process.

Antonio stumbled away from the tree, mumbling a few profanities.

"You son of a BITCH!" shrieked a sopping wet Lovino, punching Antonio on the arm savagely.

"Hey, what did I _do_" Antonio exclaimed, trying to prevent any further attacks from Lovino.

"You knocked the one fucking fishing hook we have in the water!," Lovino hollered furiously, wringing the water from one of his shirt sleeves "That's it, from no on, you stay on the West of the island, I'll have the East"

and with that Lovino stormed off through the trees, cursing as he went, leaving Antonio alone with no food or shelter but with Lovino's coat still clutched in one of his hands.

* * *

If there was one thing Lovino couldn't stand it was idiots, he'd had to deal with innumerable idiots throughout his life, his brothers, his father, his acquaintances (because he didn't have friends dammit) but he thought that this Antonio Bastard was a whole new level of idiot, the king of the idiots ruling over idiot land in the fucking lunatic castle.

His morning had started off well enough, he was beyond freezing but at least the bastard hadn't died over night (which did not mean he cared, he just didn't want to have to dig a grave on his own).

But of course Lovino's morning couldn't continue well, he woke up to a grinning idiot, then went out to find food...then the bastard decided to knock him into a fucking river which made him loose the fucking fishing hook, the fishing hook which currently held the key to his existence; he'd been living on fish for a _very _long time, he now hated the taste but he needed it to live.

So he'd stormed off and claimed the Eastern half of the island as his, which he later realized was a shit idea because he had accidentally given himself the half of the island with the least resources, a small stream aaaaaand that was about it, the terrain was too rocky for him to be able to find much in the way of edible plant life, not only that but he had accidentally given Antonio the camp.

* * *

Antonio had seriously considered going after Lovino, but decided against it because he got the distinct impression that Lovino was angry with him.

He realized that the loss of the fishing hook was bad, but surely there was other things to eat on the island. Maybe Lovino would come back when he was less angry, maybe if he made a new hook...maybe if pigs started flying.


	4. Chapter 4 stupid ghost

**I still don't own Hetalia thanks for reading so far ^_^ sorry last chapter was so short, it just seemed like an appropriate place to stop.**

Lovino hadn't come back, Antonio had gone back to camp and waited for him. But it had got later and later, eventually Antonio had gone to sleep without lunch or dinner, he'd even managed to fall into the remains of the fire when he'd simply collapsed into it, unable to bring himself to dreamed of home, of working in the museum, arguing with Alice, cooking everything he missed and was going to miss...apart from the Alice bit...that was mostly because it was something familiar and reminded him of home."stupid Bastard..." hissed a small voice, echoing around his head, Antonio recognized the voice but couldn't remember where, his dream shattered around him, he was hot for a few heart beats before becoming deathly cold as a bitter chilly wind attacked him.

"CHIGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" Thump "Shit"

Antonio's eyes flew open and he sat bolt upright, "wha, what?"

Antonio was greeted with a terrified looking Lovino who was sprawled on the floor, his beard seeming to have grown half a hands width over night, and his eyes looking like they had seen some kind of monster

"Lovino, what are you doing here?"

Lovino scrambled to his feet and threw his arms around Antonio's shoulders, springing away the moment he realized what he was doing and choosing instead to punch his arm as hard as he could "You are a BASTARD!" he shrieked "Where in the fuck were you, it's been nearly two months! Why are you here now? I thought I told you to stick to the West of the island!"

Antonio stared wide eyed as the young man ranted "what are you talking about, Lovino, it's only been one night?"

Lovino shot him a look so angry it could have set water ablaze.

"Don't you fucking mess with me, Bastard, where were you?"

Antonio shrugged and then smiled "At least I know you care"

"I don't"

"oh"

* * *

Lovino had been alone for so long, the first evening after his argument with Antonio over the fishing hook he had gone back to get his coat back...certainly not to see how the Bastard was getting along, but what he found was the imprint of Antonio's face in the ashes of the fire but no tracks leading away; Needless to say he scarpered pretty quickly after that, because who would stick around for ghosts!

And he didn't go back because he was lonely, the same way he didn't stand on the beach several times a day looking for ships...he just didn't want to die on the island alone with the ghosts.

Then one day, just as Lovino was coming to terms with the fact that the closest thing he had to human company (seeing as how Antonio was some kind of idiot ghost) had gone missing because Lovino had got himself in a mood over a stupid fishing hook.

Lovino had gathered the things he had with him and then moved his camp to the most Easterly point of the island on a hill with enough tree cover that he didn't _completely _freeze at night from the wind off the sea. And then one day as he was coming back to the site he found the Bastard fast asleep, still in his coat; so Lovino did what any brave captain would have done in the situation, he screamed as loud as his vocal chords would allow and then ran...only his feet chose that exact moment to decide that they would no longer function as legs should and tripped him over and straight flat on his fucking face just in time for the ghost to see.

"Lovino what are you doing here?" ...Lovino hadn't spoken to anyone in so long, and for some reason he found himself hugging the idiot...probably some weird ghost shit! Then he went into his default setting, blind fury.

* * *

After the joint confusion on both Antonio and Lovino's parts things seemed to settle down. Antonio was allowed to stay after proving his un-ghosty-ness, he'd ran head long into the side of a cave explaining that ghosts could walk through walls to an un convinced Lovino.

Lovino was even more moody with Antonio if that was possible, but he always stayed within eye sight.

This went on for a few days, eating nothing but fish and a few mushrooms, Antonio was starting to get a serious tomato craving.

He looked down at the food that Lovino had handed him and grimaced, Lovino noticed and sent him a furious glare "Oh sorry Princess, is it not to your liking, Bastard!" Lovino grumbled.

Antonio shook his head "No, I'm just really hungry for tomatoes"

Lovino nodded his approval before frowning sadly "Tomatoes would be brilliant, but we don't have any, so eat your fucking fish"

Antonio ignored the fish "you like tomatoes?"

"who doesn't?"

"my ex boss, several of my colleagues...actually most of the people I know" Antonio replied quickly, distressed by how many people could possibly dislike his favorite food.

Lovino folded his arms "yeah, a lot of the people I know aren't too keen either, but that just meant more for me"

Antonio grinned "When we get off this island we are definitely going to have to have some kind of tomato party"

a sudden unexpected smile covered Lovino's face stripping away years of age "yeah! With as many types of tomato as we can find" he replied enthusiastically

Antonio leapt to his feet "That sounds brilliant! High five Lovi!"

Lovino remained seated "What's a high five and what's a Lovi?"

Antonio sat down "A Lovi is you, because Lovino is too long, and with a high five you're supposed to hit my hand"

Lovino gave Antonio a doubtful look before punching his hand which was down by his side and certainly not expecting to be hit.

"OW!" Antonio yelped "No, like this" He held up one hand and took Lovino's with the other making their palms touch "That's a high five, it's meant to show happiness and friend ship...not the sudden urge to put me in the emergency room"

"emergency room?"

oh...

What followed was Antonio's super special guide to the modern world, after which Lovino was well and truly convinced that Antonio was a mad-man in need of some serious help.

* * *

By evening it was very very cold, the wind was picking up to the point where the tree cover did virtually nothing to protect the island's two human inhabitants from the freezing cold gale force wind coupled with a generous helping of hail. It became clear that neither Antonio nor Lovino were going to get any sleep unless they found cover of some kind or another.

Antonio searched around the area with Lovino, who looked as though he was trying to swear with every hail stone that hit his head with the rate at which he was cursing.

Eventually Lovino gave a triumphant shout, he'd found a very small cave which appeared safe given the circumstances; Antonio raced over to find that Lovino had already squeezed his way inside.

"You're not going to fit" Lovino stated bluntly.

Antonio frowned "come on Lovi, let me in" he was just as cold and wet as Lovino was and it struck him as unfair that he had simply claimed the nook as his own

"no, finders keepers" Lovino retorted

Antonio shrugged "I have the coat, if I was in there as well you could share it and then we'd both be warm and dry.

Lovino seemed to be considering, and then held out his hand "It's my fucking coat, give it here"

Antonio shook his head "But it isn't your coat is it, it's too long for you and too baggy, it definitely belongs to someone else and now it's mine, so let me in"

from the dark Antonio saw two amber eyes giving him a venomous look "Okay, fine I stole it when I was left here, so shoot me! Ugh, fine, come in but I swear if we run out of air because you decided to be an ass hole!"

Antonio grinned broadly and squeezed into the tiny space.


	5. Chapter 5 the home counties

**I still don't own Hetalia thanks for the reviews and follows.**

Lovino woke up feeling the most comfortable he had in years, even when on his ship his hammock had been as uncomfortable as fuck. He was sat down and he was leant on something very warm, something warm and moving, he had two smaller warm somethings wrapped around his shoulders, and another buried in the crook of his neck. He also had something draped around him that felt familiar or at least more familiar than the warmth that was around him.

It was peaceful, and Lovino decided that he should probably open his eyes, but resolved not to move for a very long time because his new found bed was far too comfortable to even think of moving from the spot he was currently sat.

Cautiously he opened his eyes and discovered that his face was buried in something white with some words that he couldn't be bothered to read on it, it felt soft, familiar and warm so Lovino found himself snuggling into it.

And then he remembered where he was, on an island, in a cave with an idiot; With an idiot in a very small space which meant that there could only be one soft warm thing that breathed this close to Lovino...

* * *

Antonio woke up from a strange dream in which tomatoes had surrounded him and were taunting him about something, he couldn't remember what about, but he knew that it had made him very distressed and then he was running (Antonio had never before run from tomatoes but he made an exception in his horrific dream) the tomatoes of doom chased him into a desert, he was exhausted and then he saw a figure and some how knew that the person needed to be protected from the tomatoes so he tackled him; Then suddenly he felt safe but kept hold of the person.

He woke from the dream wondering what the hell had happened and found that he was very warm and had hold of something else that was warm. He looked down and saw that he had Lovino curled up in his arms fast asleep. For a few moments Antonio wondered what to do before settling on doing nothing because Lovino would probably be even more angry if he woke him up.

After a while Antonio fell back asleep.

* * *

Okay, he could do this, he could simply clamber out of the cave and pretend this whole sorry affair never happened, the only fly in the ointment was that Antonio had blocked the exit of the cave so essentially Lovino was trapped, it didn't help that Antonio had him trapped in the mother of all bear hugs.

Antonio was snoring really fucking loudly, apparently the peacefulness he'd encountered on first waking up was all a lie because shit if Antonio didn't sound like someone grinding with a pestle and mortar.

Lovino attempted to wriggle out of the hug backwards, he was just about to pull his head through when Antonio decided to wrap his arms around Lovino's head "Fuck!"

* * *

"Shit shit fucking bastardy fuck!" Oh...it sounded like Lovino was awake, Antonio opened his eyes and saw that he had pinned Lovino's face into his chest, that might be why he was so angry. Antonio released Lovino who had gone red, although Antonio couldn't see much behind the beard.

"Sorry Lovi"  
"The fuck is wrong with you!" Lovino gasped furiously. before elbowing Antonio out of the way and squeezing through the gap looking just as angry as he had been the last time he'd stormed off.

* * *

Antonio's fears that Lovino would do a runner (run off) were confirmed when he left the cave and couldn't see him anywhere. He settled himself down outside the cave deciding to wait for the grumpy man to return.

"ANTONIO!"

Antonio looked up to see Lovino sprinting down the slope towards him, slipping near the end and face planting the floor; Antonio immediately ran towards him to find out if he was okay but Lovino waved him away despite having gained a pretty nasty looking cut on his fore head. "There's a ship you stupid Bastard, come on!"

Antonio stared at him "What?"

Lovino seized his hand and hauled him back the way he came "A ship!"

they arrived at the beach and Lovino started shrieking at the ship waving his arms and yelling. Antonio had never seen Lovino grin like that before, tears were running down his face and he looked more happy than he'd ever seen him.

Lovino rounded on him "Come _on_ Antonio, help me!" he ordered.

Antonio nodded and started waving Lovino's coat in the air yelling as loudly as he could. It looked as though the ship was going past them, Antonio looked over at Lovino to see the most heart breaking expression he had ever seen on a human being's face "Lovi?" he asked, desperate to cheer the younger man up.

Lovino looked at the floor with a pained look on his face "I'm fine Bastard, I can last another few months before I resort to cannibalism" he whispered

Antonio shook his head and held out his arms for a hug, but then Lovino's face became over joyed "Those Bastards" he beamed, his eyes lit up and his whole posture changed.

"What?" Antonio asked, Lovino punched him lightly on the arm

"It takes about three hours to turn a ship that size, they just took their sweet time doing it"

Antonio looked back at the ship which was beginning to change it's angle.

* * *

The ship was nearly to shore when it became evening, suddenly Lovino took the time to really look at the ship... she flew a pirate flag displaying a skull drinking tea, he looked to the name on the stern of the ship "The home counties" ...A Kirkland ship.

"Shit" he muttered "Shit shit shit, Antonio we have to get away"

Antonio looked at him "What?"

"that's a Kirkland ship you idiot! They'll kill you and use me to get to my family, shit shit shit! Arthur's a complete Bastard" Lovino exclaimed, tugging frantically at Antonio's arm.

But it was too late, long boats were ashore and a group of pirates were approaching them.

"Lovino Vargas? Is that you behind all that hair?" Asked a man with dirty blonde hair and massive eye brows, he looked alarmingly like the Kirkland Antonio had left behind.

Antonio looked to his left but Lovino was no where in sight, but then he realized that Lovino had decided to use Antonio as a human shield "Yeah it's me" He was physically trembling.

**The ship name was my little sister's idea, it made our Mum laugh so it seemed like a good idea to use the name.**


	6. Chapter 6 Angry Boy

**I still don't own Hetalia...sorry for neglecting my other fanfics, in my defense this one has been in my mind much longer than the others. Just a warning, this one will contain Britannia who is essentially everything I know about Celtic women in one person.**

The Eye brows man and his men had pretty much launched Antonio and Lovino into the long boat and then they'd been pulled onto the ship and then were tied to these metal things on the deck that Arthur had called bilboes (no really, that _is _the official term) Lovino was shaking by this point but Antonio couldn't do anything about it because his hands were quite literally tied.

And then this woman came up from below decks. She was short like Arthur with huge eyebrows and long greying red hair "Arthur Kirkland, what are we doing this far off course?"

the eye brows man looked up "It's fine Mum, just go back below decks" he replied

the woman glared at him "Oh no, I'm going no where" she folded her arms and leaned against the door frame

Antonio was planning to keep listening but he felt Lovino dive behind him (or as best he could with his wrists tied to the scrap of metal) "Are you okay Lovi?" he asked worriedly

Lovino glared at him "That's Morag Kirkland, she hates my father she'll kill me" he whispered hoarsely

Antonio sat in front of Lovino in the hope that he would be shielded from her view

"Is that one of Vargas' boys?" Antonio was shoved roughly out of the way by the woman who stared at Lovino.

"Ciao Signorina Kirkland" Lovino said giving the woman a wink, Antonio was seriously taken aback, Lovino was like a different person from the trembling, fearful man he had been mere moments ago, Antonio wondered briefly if this was how Lovino always acted when in danger.

The woman frowned "That's Captain Kirkland to you young man, and less of the flirting it'll get you no where"

Lovino shrugged "it was worth a try" he grinned although Antonio thought that it looked a little forced and he could still see a trace of fear in Lovino's eyes

the woman smiled kindly "Let's get you cleaned up then Lad"

now it was Lovino's turn to stare "why?"

"Because your hair is going to drive me insane" she replied curtly, instructing someone to release him.

* * *

When all other things failed him it seemed that flirting wouldn't, Lovino had picked up the habit of flirting with pretty much any woman after spending years of shore leave with his father in taverns and inns in ports the world over and apparently it worked a charm. Although not in the way it was meant to, it appeared that Arthur's mother was more intent on making him presentable to society than anything else, killing him included. Unfortunately most of the times Lovino tried to flirt with women it brought out their maternal side, something which he found embarrassing but his brothers seemed to find endlessly amusing.

* * *

Antonio worried what Morag could possibly be doing, what if she killed Lovino? He was furious with himself for not having acted sooner to protect him, but then again he _was _tied to the deck of the ship so it wasn't like he could do much about it; But that didn't stop him feeling physically sick with worry, he was seriously thinking about gnawing his own arms off and possibly using them as weapons when a pair of brown booted feet appeared in front of him "Calm down Bastard, you look stupid when you worry"

Antonio looked up into a face that he didn't think he'd see again, the face of the angry boy from his mind all those years ago, considerably older but just as grumpy as ever.

"You?" he gasped

"Me. What the fuck?" the man received a swift slap to the back of the head from the Morag woman

"Language Mr Vargas" she scolded before she walked away, presumably to attend to other pirate business

Antonio's mind wasn't always the swiftest but he managed to put together several things from that one sentence

1-angry boy was Lovino

2-he wasn't going to be swearing in front of Mrs Kirkland any time soon

3-Lovino's last name was Vargas

granted none of these things were particularly impressive, but for someone who was still in shock it was amazing he was able to think coherently.

He was suddenly aware of a bright scarlet face directly in front of his own "You okay Bastard?"

"You look much cuter without the beard" wait...that wasn't what he had meant to say , Lovino turned a satisfying shade of red and shot Antonio a glare

"I think it covered your blushes because you look exactly like a tomato" and again, Antonio was really out doing himself on the saying the wrong thing front today.

"Fuck this shit" Lovino growled, standing up

"Wait, Lovi, did you have weird dreams when you were growing up?" third time lucky.

Lovino looked terrified before bowing his head "No" he replied bluntly before walking away quickly.

Antonio frowned at the bilboes as if he could take out his frustration simply by giving the piece of metal the most furious look he had in his arsenal.

A young man with brown hair and large eyebrows knelt next to Antonio (really, more eyebrows? What were these people eating?)

"G' Day" he beamed

Antonio looked over to him "Hola"

"Giving the bilboes nasty looks isn't gonna make you free"

"It might" Antonio pouted

the man chuckled "no it won't"

"Why's Lovino allowed to be free?" Antonio asked, trying not to sound too obviously worried about Lovino's safety

the man shrugged "beats me, usually Nan would've had him keel hauled, I'm Chris by the way"

Antonio smiled "Antonio"

"Christian Kirkland, get over here now!" shouted Arthur from the stern of the ship

Chris rolled his eyes "be with you in a minute"

"Now!"

* * *

How in the fuck did Antonio know? He couldn't possibly actually know? Lovino could feel himself panicking more and more, no one could know; That's why he was a pirate for fucks sake!

He found a nice hiding spot next to a cannon and tried to focus on something, anything but the room...perhaps if he focused on the good...like leaving it...but then he remembered why he was put there and became furious with Antonio for bringing it up! But he knew it wasn't really Antonio's fault; much as he'd love to blame him it wasn't. Antonio was an oblivious sort of person who had a bad habit of stumbling onto things that made Lovino uncomfortable, like the whole blushing thing which most certainly did _not _keep happening with alarming frequency!

He wasn't the biggest fan of the clothes that Morag had forced on him either, they were all a bit too English...and it didn't help matters when she said "Oh you're such a little mite, I think we'll have to use some of Arthur's clothes from when he was young...you're the youngest one right? Marcello?" Lovino stopped listening after the woman mistook him for his seventeen year old brother...he probably should have after she called him a mite. What on earth had happened to the woman who used to scare the life out of his father?

Lovino glared down at the green coat and brown boots, at what point had these pirates been so desperate for clothes that they robbed a land fill?


	7. Chapter 7 new dream

**I still don't own Hetalia, thanks for reading and stuff and for not killing me. Sorry, I forgot to mention last chapter that Chris is Australia...I'm forgetful sorry  
**

**Winnifred=WY**

As promised Chris came back to talk to Antonio, it was nice to talk to someone besides Lovino, although that may have been more to do with the fact that Chris didn't swear every other word.

But Antonio was still worried, Lovino hadn't returned to talk to him since he asked if he had strange dreams; But he needed to know.

Chris was shoveling food into his mouth ridiculously quickly, Antonio watched in alarm as the man demolished his meal in little under a minute

"Why're you eating that quickly?" Antonio asked curiously

Chris looked up with a mouth full of food "I have to eat a lot today because Arthur's cooking tomorrow" he replied looking faintly ill.

Antonio sat in silence for a few moments "When will Lovi come back" he mumbled, more to himself than to anyone else

"Who's Lovi?" asked Chris cheerfully.

"Lovino," Antonio replied "The man I came here with"

"oh, him? I think he's in the crows nest"

Antonio craned his neck to see where Lovino was but all he could see was the wooden planking at the bottom of the platform.

At that moment a small boy and girl came sprinting past, both with massive eyebrows (seriously what was with this ship) and then the captain came storming after them, so naturally Antonio stuck his foot out to trip him. Arthur was sent sprawling onto the floor.

"You did that on purpose" he snarled, looking about as intimidating as a jam sandwich, Antonio couldn't believe that Lovino was afraid of this pillock

Antonio tried to look as innocent as possible but couldn't keep the smile off his face "of course not"

Arthur glared at him as he picked himself up of the floor "one more screw up and you're for keel haulin'"

Antonio smiled, he was in a bad mood so the threat fell on deaf ears.

Antonio turned back to Chris to see him hugging the girl who had brown hair tied in a side ponytail.

"I know, he can be scary can't he" he said softly

"I'm not scared" grumbled the girl

"She's totally scared!" exclaimed the blonde boy who was now leaning over Antonio's shoulder with a proud smirk on his young face.

"This is your fault Peter! You said I was allowed to paint there" exclaimed the young girl who looked furious, she was trying to struggle out of the death hug which Chris had her in.

Antonio watched the children squabbling as Chris laughed, it was nice to see people being so happy.

"Hello?" Antonio smiled awkwardly,

Chris looked at him for a few moments before grinning back "This is my little sister, Winnifred," he beamed "And this is Peter"

"I'm their uncle" announced the boy.

Chris and Winnifred groaned and rolled their eyes.

* * *

Lovino wasn't sulking, he wasn't!. Even if he'd been sat up in the crows nest all day...that wasn't sulking, what he was actually doing was thinking, how in the fuck did Antonio know about his dreams, as far as he knew only his father and Feliciano knew; Marcello didn't know, their mother was dead, Feli's recollection was hazy because he was so young and the guards wouldn't remember him...would they? Antonio couldn't have been one he was too young. And that was pretty much what had been going through his mind for hours on end.

He looked over the side of the crows nest, he could see Antonio still tied, he was with three of Arthur's family, What if he told them! Would he do that? Was their sort-of-friendship enough to stop him...did he know anyway? ARGH this was going to drive him insane.

* * *

Chris boasted loudly about how amazing Winnifred's paintings were, Antonio listened in rapt attention, he liked to see people getting along, it was sweet.

Peter seemed to be getting bored and decided to sit on the gunwales only to be yanked off by the passing Morag "Will you be careful!"

and then she stalked off.

* * *

"Lovino?"

Lovino rolled over, he'd decided to lie down in the crows nest, and saw Morag Kirkland "Ciao"

she clambered up and sat beside him with a smile on her face "We should be getting you home soon"

"You aren't going to kill me?" he asked worriedly

she laughed "Now why on earth would I do that?, besides, your dad is worried _sick _about you"

Lovino scowled "how do you know?" he asked

"I know because Romulus decided to board my ship and start screaming at me because he automatically assumed that I was the one who kidnapped you" she replied, fondly ruffling your hair.

Lovino was understandably confused by this, he was scared, this woman had fought his father a number of times she'd beaten him more than once and came close several other times.

"Why are you being nice?"

she chuckled "Oh Lovely, you aren't your father"

Lovino grumbled "Why are you on Arthur's ship anyway?"

"I was sunk, it's lucky one of my boys was near by to help," she replied "any way, you can go back to your dad soon".

* * *

Antonio had having fun sat with the siblings and Peter, they'd been gone for hours now. but he was left being worried that he'd upset Lovino, but really what was the point of lying about the dreams, it was painfully obvious that he'd been lying and now he was hiding.

He was a little irritated with Lovino for running (or speed walking) but mostly he was worried, partly because of what Lovino had said about the Kirklands especially the part involving the likelihood that they'd either kill him or hold him hostage.

* * *

It wasn't like the old dreams, this one felt different, but not by a lot...it was more like he was just there...the smiler wasn't or at least Lovino assumed he wasn't, he never actually looked at the other boy in the clearing. He looked up for the first time in years...he couldn't see anyone there but he could sense feelings, he felt irritated, worried, scared and protective...none of which made any sense to Lovino apart from the worry and fear because he was really very worried about how much Antonio knew, but Antonio had nothing to do with the dreams (or he better not because Lovino had quite enough of all this shit) he kicked at a tree stump before he found himself lying in a hammock below decks with a horrible seasick feeling, one which he hadn't felt in years.


	8. Chapter 8 limpets

**I don't own Hetalia, thanks for reading and stuff ^_^ my updates are gonna be a little more scattered than usual, I have 2 lots of coursework which need to be handed in on Monday (two days eeeeeeek!) and 2 mock exams in 2 weeks so revision is going to be getting in the way of writing and drawing, sorry.**

After careful consideration Lovino decided that he needed to get out of the crows nest for safety reasons after he woke up unsettlingly close to the edge of the platform.

Cautiously he clambered down the rigging; he would have been careful anyway, he knew what a fall from the rigging could do to someone's bones, But he was being extra careful because the Tomato bastard was sleeping on the deck. He reached the bottom of the rigging and tiptoed ever so carefully into a FUCKING BARREL THAT HAD DECIDED TO STUB THE SHIT OUT OF HIS TOE! "ow! OW! Fucking...OW!" he yelped, clutching his toe in agony and no he was not being melodramatic.

"Lovi?" Lovino's blood froze as he turned to see a confused looking Antonio on the floor looking at him.

"I'm a figment of your imagination Antonio...you are asleep"

* * *

Now call Antonio oblivious as often as you like but he had watched enough cartoons to know what was going on here, Lovino was trying to sneak past him and that did not sit well with him at all.

"Are you really Lovi? So if I'm dreaming, why are you here?" he hinted, hoping that Lovino would tell him about the dreams...perhaps if he told him he had the dreams too...

"How the fuck should I know, it's your fucked up imagination" Lovino retorted as he stormed below decks, limping in an exaggerated fashion.

Well, that hadn't gone as planned.

* * *

Lovino hurried to the area the crew were sleeping in, Arthur had mentioned that there was a spare hammock for him somewhere and right now he had need of it. His heart drummed against his chest, he'd nearly been caught, thank God Antonio was an idiot.

* * *

Chris greeted Antonio the next morning with his usual grin and exuberant attitude, but what he said left Antonio with some very strange feelings...Lovino was leaving, apparently they were going to hand him over to his father and that would be the last Antonio would ever see of him; Which meant he'd never know anything about Lovino's dreams apart from them being linked to his somehow.

The crew were scurrying around like hyperactive squirrels and Antonio could already see the other ship from his place sat on the floor, he craned his neck trying to see Lovino but so far all he could see were the unfamiliar knees of pirates who were not cute enough to be his Lovi...when the heck had he become his Lovi? But then again it sounded about right.

He'd slept sitting up so Antonio stretched out his legs hearing some satisfying cracks come from them (and a couple which hurt a little but essentially made his legs feel better) but of course today was everyone hates Antonio day, A day in which Lovino was still upset with him, he was set to loose Lovino forever aaaaand he tripped up a certain angry, blonde, huge eyebrowed, English Pirate Captain who had already warned him that his second offense would result in a keel hauling.

He hadn't even meant to do it this time, he'd stretched his legs out, clicked them and then with a deafening cry of "Bloody hell!" Arthur Kirkland had tripped over them.

He was told that his keel hauling would happen the moment Lovino was back on his father's ship.

Antonio didn't want to be keel hauled, he happened to know enough about it from the museum to know that few men survived it, most drowned and were cut up horribly by the limpets from the bottom of the ship, others were attacked by the local wild life, some died of shock, hypothermia, the drop itself...you name it you'd probably die from it after keel hauling.

* * *

Lovino gazed over the side of the ship, he'd be back with his father again...for his sake he hoped that Romulus Vargas had kept his damn mouth shut about Lovino's little mishap with his last crew because if Feliciano found out then all hell would break loose.

He grumbled to himself while watching, on the plus side he could talk to Mathew again if he was still aboard his father's ship, that'd be nice...the bastard was actually less bastardy than a lot of people he knew.

He heard Arthur shouting about something but tuned it out, it couldn't possibly be that important, the bastard was always screaming at something.

* * *

With every passing second Antonio was getting more and more miserable, there was so much he hadn't done yet, and what about his parents, who would tell them! Would they miss him, would his friends? Would Lovino? Lovino probably wouldn't, but all those people he was leaving behind.

How long could he hold his breath? Could he perhaps swim out of the way of the limpets? He didn't know but he was actually really scared.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the other ship until he heard the gentle thud of a plank being placed between 'The home counties' and whatever Lovino's father's ship was called.

He looked up and saw Lovino walking across, then pause and walk back "I haven't said goodbye" he snapped at a grumpy looking pirate who seemed exasperated with the whole thing.

He walked over to Antonio and knelt down "As stupid as it sounds I'm actually going to miss you, Tomato Bastard," he smiled wearily "I might see you again"

Antonio shook his head "I probably won't live that long" he said sadly, Lovino raised an eyebrow

"I know you're as annoying as fuck, but I don't think anyone's going to kill you for it"

Antonio choked out a feeble laugh "They're going to keel haul me"

Lovino looked horrified "What in the name of Fuck did you _do_, you're tied up, how do you even manage that?"

"I accidentally tripped Arthur..."

"You're an idiot!"

**I'll try to get the next chapter up ASAP, but again, revision and coursework...if I finish it tomorrow or the day after I will try to update then...but I have around 2210 words to write for one and 3 paragraphs to fit into my last 100 words for the other -_-**


	9. Chapter 9 Romulus

**I've finished my Archaeology and English coursework YAY! Which means I can update!**

**I still don't own Hetalia, thanks for reading and stuff ^_^**

How in the name of FUCK had Antonio even manage to get a keel hauling by tripping someone up, that must have been one hell of a fucking trip! Lovino was ranting in his head to try to get past how worried he was, he knew how keel hauling worked and he didn't want Antonio to go through that. He stormed towards Arthur "Oi, eyebrows" ...that had been a mistake, several pairs of eyes swiveled in Lovino's direction as well as Arthur's.

"What do you want, Vargas?" asked Arthur with a frown.

"When the hell did you gain the authority to punish _my _men?" Lovino growled, trying to look like he wasn't afraid of the English man.

Arthur snorted "Men, what men? You were mutinied against, you have no men" ouch, that was un-called for.

"I have one man, Antonio, and you're going to keel haul him because you tripped over your own damn feet" Lovino growled, Arthur looked furious before folding his arms.

"Is that so?" he snarled

"Yes, and as he is one of _my _men, I think he should come with me" he retorted, damn Arthur was scary, really fucking scary, if they gave awards for scary Arthur Kirkland would be in the top ten...because Francis Bonnefoy and Ivan Braginski would definitely be his competition and Lovino wasn't entirely sure who would win.

Arthur looked about ready to kill Lovino when suddenly he paled dramatically ans Lovino felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you arguing with my son?" asked Romulus Vargas, Lovino looked over his shoulder, yep, definitely his father.

"He wants to keel haul my only loyal man" Lovino stated with a good deal more confidence than he had moments before. Romulus glared at Arthur

"Well he's not going to is he" he growled with a purely livid look on his face in sharp contrast with the boisterous, cheerful and exuberant man that Lovino knew.

Lovino felt a menacing presence, he looked back in Arthur's direction and saw that Morag was now stood behind him looking more like the woman of legend than the maternal woman he'd seen in previous days.

"Are you threatening my lad, Vargas, after I brought your first born back?" she hissed

"He's going to kill the last member of my sons crew" Romulus yelled, Lovino could tell that it was killing his father not to flirt, he'd flirt with any woman enemy or not.

* * *

Antonio watched a tallish man with curly hair the same colour as Lovino's walked onto the ship, he really hoped he would help Lovino, he knew the argument wasn't going to go well the moment Lovino yelled "Oi Eyebrows" which was daft given the amount of people on the ship who could be nicknamed 'eyebrows'. He saw Arthur go white when he caught sight of the man...and then Morag arrived and shit hit the fan.

He wasn't sure what was going on, or why it started but Morag had drawn her sword and pointed it at Lovino and the man. Antonio wrenched at his bonds, this was insane, what on earth was Lovi playing at.

The man had drawn his own sword and now he and Morag were circling each other but Lovino was in the way and he was un-armed. "Lovino!" he exclaimed "Lovi come over here!"

Lovino looked as though he was going to go over to him but as quick as a flash Morag had a dagger pointed at him "don't you move, boy" she snapped.

"Let my son go!"...so he was Lovi's Dad, that would explain the resemblance.

"My boy wouldn't have some one keel hauled for a trivial!" Morag yelled, Antonio had no idea how they were still circling, he was getting dizzy just watching.

"How is tripping over not trivial?" Lovino shrieked, oh...OH! Lovi was in danger because he was trying to protect him...that was adorable and stupid, how could he put himself in danger like that! He was going to have some pretty stern words with Lovino if they ever got out of this...who was he kidding...he'd probably give him one hell of a hug.

Morag stopped and put her sword and dagger down "What?" she asked

"He tripped and blamed Antonio!" Lovino exclaimed.

Morag scowled and cuffed Arthur on the back of the head "What on earth were you playing at you dunce!" she scolded

"Hey!, you were the one who introduced the three discrepancies rule!" Arthur retorted

"Yes but I happen to like Antonio, you git! I don't care how old you are, or what your rank is, Arthur Kirkland, you are going to stay in your quarters until we make port!"

Antonio had been so distracted by the argument between Mother and Son that he didn't realize that Lovino and Mr Vargas had ran over to him until they started to untie his hands.

* * *

If there was one thing that Vargas men were good at it was getting away virtually un-detected, Lovino and his father set about un-tieing Antonio's arms, the idiot seemed pretty out of it until they got his hands loose, even then they had to pretty much drag him onto his father's ship because his legs had chosen to go to sleep.

"OI!, You three, you take care!" exclaimed Morag who now had Arthur by the ear.

* * *

The moment Antonio was on the ship he pulled Lovino around to look at him "Don't scare me like that again!" he snapped

Lovino scowled "well I'm sorry for saving your fucking life!" he retorted.

Antonio put his arms around Lovino gently "why can't I be angry with you?" he asked, really this was getting silly, but he was really worried about him so his earlier outburst was justifiable, right?.

Antonio realized he had been hugging Lovino for a while now. And then they were pulled roughly apart...or at least Antonio was...Mr Vargas smiled "So who's this Lovino?"


	10. Chapter 10 How to make a new friend

**I still don't own Hetalia, thanks for reading and stuff ^_^ sorry this took so long, I had mock exams...and then I had real exams...and then I went to my grand parents...BUT I AM BACK AND ON MY HOLIDAYS SO I WILL WRITE AGAIIIIIN! Thankyou so much for being to patient with me ^_^**

Lovino shrugged at his father "This is Antonio, Long story short, my crew mutinied, they left me on an island and then that bastard showed up, lost my fishing hook, disappeared for a while, came back and now we're acquaintances" he stated, not wanting to say they were friends seeing as he knew virtually nothing about Antonio apart from the fact he liked tomatoes.

His father didn't look particularly impressed "So he nearly had you starve to death and abandoned you?" he asked incredulously, Lovino rolled his eyes, this was Romulus' way of vetting Lovino and his brother's friends.

"He came back" he retorted sharply because he was tired,

"shh, no, I want him to answer!" Romulus replied curtly, glaring at Antonio who was feverishly rubbing his arm where Romulus had pulled the two apart.

"Huh, what? I wasn't listening" Antonio smiled absent mindedly. Lovino felt like telling him that there was no use being good natured, his father was not side tracked by a nice smile (not that Antonio had a nice smile, he had a shitty smile that did _not _make Lovino want to return it in the least!)

Romulus scowled and turned to Lovino "And he is your last loyal man?" he grumbled, he turned back to Antonio "you lost my first born's only way of catching food and then disappeared and left him?"

"um...yes..." Antonio replied.

Romulus' scowl had been bad before, but now he looked murderous "right then, throw him over board" he ordered.

Lovino was about to step in because they'd just gone through this shit on Arthur's stupid ship when Antonio suddenly grew a back bone.

"That wasn't my fault, get all the facts before you condemn me" Antonio snarled, Lovino and Romulus froze for a few moments

"I can see why you keep him" Romulus murmured before striding off.

Lovino looked back at Antonio who now seemed back to his cheerful self, Lovino frowned.

* * *

"What in the fuck is wrong with you!" Lovino shrieked,

Antonio shrugged "Who knows" he smiled, it looked as though he was safe for the time being. Lovino ran a hand through his hair in exasperation before stalking away, Antonio didn't want to be left on his own so he followed him below decks.

Lovino stopped at the bottom of the stairs and glared at him "Stop following me, I'm getting into some decent clothes!"

"But I don't want to be on my own!" Antonio wailed. Lovino simply raised his middle finger and stormed below decks. Antonio just stood there, bereft of the only friendly and familiar face on the entire ship.

"Are you alright?" asked a voice that didn't sound homicidal, and that was good enough for Antonio for the time being. Antonio turned and saw a short-ish man with blonde hair and a beard.

"No I am not, amigo" he sighed, sitting down.

"Boyfriend trouble?"

"What?"

"Nothing, My name's Francis, and you?"

"Antonio" Antonio replied.

The Frenchman nodded "Don't mind Lovino, he's always had a temper"

Antonio nodded vigorously "But he's so cute too" he stated adamantly. Francis grinned

"Definitely." he murmured

"Definitely what?"

Francis just smiled cryptically "Do you want some lunch?"

* * *

Okay, so maybe Lovino had been a little harsh with Antonio, he could have waited outside his father's quarters while he got dressed. And hell, what would that idiot do on his own? And he dressed so weirdly, he could be killed in the time it took for Lovino to get dressed. He was dressed and ready to run off to see if Antonio was okay...and then he caught sight of himself in the mirror. His hair was all over the place, his clothes didn't match and for some reason that didn't bother him. But he knew that it should do, and he couldn't hear any sounds of distress, so he got changed (more quickly than he had ever done so before) and charged back above decks.

Only Antonio wasn't there. Lovino grabbed a passing arm, "Have you seen an idiot?" he asked the startled looking sailor.

The sailor nodded "The one with the brown hair who yelled at the captain?" he asked

"That'll be the one" Lovino replied.

"In the galley with Francis"

For fucks sake, he can't have been gone more than ten minutes! And Francis was fucking scary, how was he supposed to save Antonio from whatever mess he'd gotten himself into.

* * *

Francis was better than not homicidal, Francis was actually a lot of fun. Antonio knew that pirate ships wouldn't have had much in the way of edible food. And Francis had lamented the lack of decent food because what was he supposed to achieve with 'A block of solid meat so heavily salted the sea would send it back' and 'I'm not even sure what that is but something is moving inside it!'

Antonio, having worked by giving children's tours of a museum couldn't help blurting out "Oh well, it's extra protein" which used to be a part of the tour. Francis slapped his arm and laughed

"That's a nice way of thinking about it" he grimaced.

And then a wooden spoon hit Francis in the back of the head. Francis wasn't affected but he pulled a face and turned around. "Ow" he exclaimed.

Lovino appeared, Antonio peered around at him. "Don't you kill him!" Lovino shouted.

"Why would I do that?"

Lovino seemed to finally register what was going on "You really weren't going to kill him" he said, sounding relieved.

"Are you okay, Lovi?" Antonio asked.

Lovino ran a hand through his hair and groaned "I'm fine, you've just been nearly killed so often lately that I assumed, you bastard." His face was red and he looked very embarrassed. Antonio fought the urge to comment on it, but he was robbed of his chance to fail dismally when Lovino left.

Francis rubbed the back of his head and then drew his hand away looking appalled, his hands were gummed up with a thick paste. "That spoon was in the porridge" Francis stated mournfully.


	11. Chapter 11 Porridge

**Thanks for reading and thanks for the reviews ^_^ I still don't own Hetalia **

Lovino had never been quite that mortified before, He was terrified of Francis and he'd thought he'd been quite proud of himself for going to protect his acquaintance (He still wasn't going in for the friend thing yet) and then it had turned out that Francis was only giving Antonio food. So he'd stormed back on deck and pretended that nothing had happened. When he'd slammed the doors the rest of the crew had looked alarmed as most of them weren't yet used to Lovino's antics.

Lovino perched himself on the gunwales of the ship and placed his hands over his burning face, blushing, fantastic. He was embarrassed and red and dammit Antonio was bothering him in more ways than one, firstly, Lovino worried that he was actually beginning to consider Antonio a friend. Secondly He had no idea how much Antonio knew about his childhood but it was enough to put him on edge. He started to gnaw on his fingernails, a habit he had managed to steer clear of until now. He sensed a presence long before his father spoke "That's a filthy habit, Lovino, " he smiled.

Lovino scowled and shifted, but still took his fingers away from his mouth. Romulus had always been perceptive when it came to his children so it wasn't surprising when he noticed that Lovino wasn't really himself. "What's wrong?" he asked sternly

"I think Antonio knows" Lovino replied, Romulus' face froze,

"I think we might need to go to my quarters."

* * *

Francis was frantically clawing the porridge out of his hair, Antonio grinned at him.

"Stop smiling, this stuff is disgusting!" Francis exclaimed.

"You cooked it" Antonio replied with a smug look on his face.

Francis looked appalled and wrinkled his nose "I did _not _cook that, even with the worst ingredients in the world I could never cook that" He retorted, sounding ridiculously offended at the assumption that he had cooked the porridge.

"Who did?" Antonio asked. At which point the door was kicked open by a man with white hair and red eyes.

"Hi Francis, wow, what happened to your hair?" smirked the man. And then Francis launched himself at him.

"You and your stupid porridge! Do you have any idea how hard that stuff is to get out of hair? DO YOU!" he cried as he tackled the other to the floor flamboyantly (Antonio had never seen a flamboyant rugby tackle before, he hadn't ever known it was possible but apparently Francis could).

"What the hell did my porridge do?" He laughed loudly, as he managed to push his friend away.

"The Captain's son threw some at me!" Francis exclaimed indignantly. The other man pulled a face

"What did you do?" he chuckled, casually giving Francis a friendly dead arm.

Francis pulled a face "Stole something from him" The white haired man gave him a questioning glance.

"What did you take from him?" asked Antonio, trying to keep his voice under control because he didn't like to think that his new friend was upsetting Lovino. He'd never really liked people who were cruel to others, especially not others who he happened to like.

Francis looked at him "Nothing that can't be returned," He replied simply before turning back to the other man "This is Antonio, he came here with Lovino, Antonio, this is-"

The other man elbowed Francis out of the way "And I am Gilbert Bielschmidt, most awesome man on the seven seas!" he announced proudly. It seemed like Gilbert was the sort of person to go in for a high five or something like that. So Antonio held his hand up, Gilbert looked confused and at that point Antonio remembered what had happened when he tried to give Lovino a high five, so he decided to abandon all hope of ever giving anyone a high five ever again.

Francis rolled his eyes "You are not the most awesome man on the seven seas, you even told me that my cousin Ma-" He didn't finish his sentence, Gilbert slammed a hand over his mouth and glared at him

"I said he was the most awesome on the _land_, if I ever stepped foot on the land then _I'd _be the most awesome on the land" Gilbert said urgently

"Still nicer than anything you've ever said to me" Francis muttered.

* * *

Romulus and Lovino entered the captain's quarters, Romulus took his seat behind his desk "You think he knows?" Romulus asked as Lovino sat opposite him.

"I know he does" Lovino replied bluntly, Romulus groaned and leaned back in his chair slightly.

"How much?"

"Enough to know about my dreams"

Romulus nodded slowly and frowned, "And you're sure you don't want him thrown over board?"

"Yes. He's a bastard but I'm pretty sure he won't say anything"

Romulus gave a rare scowl which made him look uncannily like the son which was sat in front of him. "I thought you'd only told Feliciano, your Mother and Me about those dreams" He said, concern lacing his words.

"So did I"

* * *

As it turned out, Francis and Gilbert were actually very nice people. Antonio had only spent about two hours in their company and already he had become firm friends with them. He'd learned that Francis was a very good cook, a very good flirt and an average gunner (worked a cannon on the ship) He'd also learned that Gilbert was an awesome everything...though Francis said that Gilbert's flirting prowess was extremely exaggerated. Gilbert was in the middle of regaling them with a story about his awesome childhood running around the woods with 'A girly boy' and 'A boy-ee girl' When Lovino entered the area followed by his father. Romulus nudged Lovino's shoulder and Lovino pulled a face, Romulus nudged his shoulder again and Lovino groaned "I'm very sorry for messing up your bastardy fucking hair" he spat sarcastically.

"Close enough" muttered Francis and Romulus in unison.

Lovino stalked back above deck.

The trio were about to start their conversation again, but Romulus stopped them. "Antonio, I want a word with you"


	12. Chapter 12 Hammocks

**I still don't own Hetalia thanks for reading and such ^_^ you're awesome!**

Romulus led Antonio into his quarters. The man wasn't yelling, and he didn't look angry, just contemplative. Somehow that was worse. Romulus sat behind his desk. "Take a seat, Carriedo." He said.

Antonio shook his head "I'd rather stand" at least that way he could run before the Captain snapped. Romulus shrugged "Your choice." There was a deadly silence in the room. Antonio couldn't even hear the bustling of the busy crew on the deck above them. Antonio was never good at sensing the mood, he didn't try to. But now he could almost taste the fear in the air, the fear wasn't just coming from him, it was coming from Romulus too. Antonio was about to say something, anything to break the tension when Romulus spoke. "How much do you know?" he murmured. Antonio had no idea what he was talking about.

"What?" he asked, his voice trembled.

"About Lovino" Romulus growled, glaring at him like a fearsome pirate instead of a benevolent captain.

"Uh...he likes tomatoes, he threw a spoon at Francis and he yells a lot" Antonio responded, he wasn't sure what he should say.

Romulus gave him a look that was alarmingly similar to the one Lovino had given him just before he split the island in half. "Lovino's right, you _are _an idiot," he muttered "About his dreams, Antonio, what do you know about Lovino's dreams?"

Antonio gulped "Not a lot. But I do know about _my _dreams. I used to have weird dreams when I was a kid, and I'm pretty sure the boy I used to see in them was Lovino" he said.

Romulus pressed his fingers together and rested his head on them. "I see, so you don't know what happened to my son because of these dreams? Good. And I trust you won't say anything to anyone about the dreams, especially not Lovino" He replied, a clear threat at the end of the sentence.

Antonio nodded, curious about what had happened to Lovino.

That had been about four weeks ago. Since then Antonio and Lovino hadn't talked much. For the first few days Antonio had stuck to him like glue, just to make sure that Lovino was going to be safe. And then he'd just drifted away to stay with Francis and Gilbert. Of course he checked on Lovino and with the friends that Antonio was making on the ship he was able to check that he was safe without necessarily being there. Not for want of trying. Antonio had tried to stay with Lovino but he'd been whisked away to do various bits of work on the ship, and Lovino was trying to prove to his father that he would be capable of running his own ship again. And on top of that Lovino spent his breaks in the Captain's quarters away from everyone so that he could study the charts and plot their course. So Antonio had only been able to get a hand full of moments with Lovino and in that time all Lovino had done was scream at him to let him go. Antonio was beginning to get to grips with the ship, he was by no means an expert but with his museum training and help from Francis and Gilbert he was getting steadily better.

Right now it was mid afternoon, Antonio was on a break with Gilbert, but Francis was busy in the crows nest. He was sat on a cannon, Gilbert was leaning against the one opposite Antonio. "I'm bored" Gilbert stated. Antonio laughed, he was pretty tired, if he were back home he'd have had a siesta by now, but now he didn't feel like he could and besides, from where he was sat now he had a clear view of Lovino. He looked tired but was far too busy lecturing a member of the crew, Antonio wasn't sure what the young man had done but by the sounds of the language being used it had been 'A fucking danger to you and the rest of this bastardy crew!' Antonio refreshed his mental note never to piss Lovino off. Even if he was cute when he was angry, but then again Antonio thought that Lovino was cute most of the time. Which was pretty spectacular considering that Antonio had spent most of his childhood disliking him because of the dreams.

The dreams. Antonio had kept his word and hadn't said a word about them, not even to Lovino. But that didn't mean that he wasn't stressed about them. He wanted to know why they had started, and whether he could ever go home again (Not that there was a lot waiting for him) He also wanted to know what had happened to Lovino when he got the dreams, It had clearly made Romulus worried and he looked like nothing had ever made him worried in his life. Interestingly he still had the dreams, but Lovino wasn't always in the clearing and when he was, he didn't seem to notice Antonio at all. Even stranger was the fact that he almost never woke up in his hammock, at first he just thought that he'd simply fallen out, but over the passing month he had woken up further and further away from his hammock.

There was a snorting snicker "Kesese, Looking at the Captain's son?" Gilbert chuckled.

Antonio hadn't even realized that he'd drifted off "No" he said, far too quickly to be honest.

Gilbert rolled his eyes "You'll want to steer clear of Lovino, It's not just one Captain Vargas who's protective of him." Gilbert stated.

Antonio sat upright "I won't want to steer clear of him!" he replied indignantly.

Gilbert rolled his eyes "A couple of people have said that, and then Feliciano had a word. Don't get me wrong, I love the kid. Feliciano is awesome! But he can be scary when he wants to be," he explained "And it isn't just Feliciano. You have experienced what the Captain can be like, and then there's Marcello"

Antonio shrugged "Captain Vargas isn't bad"

Gilbert snorted "If you hurt him he'd kill you."

Francis joined the trio "Oui, and he'd do worse if you broke his heart"

"Whoa!" When did this become a conversation about him breaking Lovi's heart? He didn't even have Lovino's heart, he wasn't even sure he wanted his heart!

"Oh? Were you planning on breaking his heart? Because then even I would have to kill you" Francis stated, Gilbert nodded beside him.

Antonio shook his head "No, but why are we talking about me breaking his heart?" he asked.

Francis flopped down onto the deck dramatically. "That's what I'd like to know" he sighed

"Exactly" Said Antonio happily, now there would be no more talk about him liking Lovino, even if he was cute, and nice...and kind of made Antonio want to throw up every time he saw him but in a good way.

"You have to have his heart before you can even think of breaking it." Francis grinned.

Gilbert groaned "Not this shit again, Francis. Do you even remember what happened the last time you tried to set someone up"

"Oui"

"They probably still aren't talking!" Gilbert growled

Francis smiled smugly and folded his arms "Actually, I got a letter not long ago, they're married"

Gilbert frowned "What ever, you should leave them alone. Because I don't want to deal with the shit you're going to cause"

Antonio watched his friends bicker and decided to take the time to actually _think _about Lovino.

* * *

Stress had been eagerly eating away at Lovino. He wanted to be back on his own _damn _ship with his own _damn _crew. But his father had refused, apparently his was worried that a new crew would do a repeat of what his last one had done and had told Lovino that he'd rather he stayed on his ship, for now. Lovino didn't exactly like being the captain anyway. He liked the bossing around part, he _loved _that part, but he didn't like the worry that any one of the decisions he made could get someone killed. He liked to give the impression that he didn't give a shit about his crew, but in all honesty he worried about them. And on top of that was the danger of going off course and starving and the ever present threat of scurvy. But Lovino had been determined to be a captain to prove that he was good enough and so that he could choose where he went. He'd spent his childhood up to the age of nine or ten ashore and had spent all of that time dreaming of where he'd go...and of an idiot boy who kept trying to talk to him.


	13. Chapter 13 The L word

**Thanks for the reviews and favourites and follows and such. I'm really sorry this took as long as it did, I had writers block and a sudden attack of terminal laziness and a load of inspiration for drawings.**

"Antonio! Look who I found!" Francis sang as he shoved a terrified Lovino towards him. This had been happening a lot lately, ever since he had decided that Antonio liked Lovino he had been setting up 'casual' thought that Francis' definition of 'casual' needed updating because cornering Lovino and then throwing him into Antonio's path while commenting loudly on how much of a coincidence it was did not fit Antonio's definition.

"Let go of me, Bastard!" Lovino exclaimed, his voice was sounding very high pitched.

Antonio sighed "Francis, let him go"

Francis looked over joyed "Do you see that, Lovino, he _saved _you" he grinned, Antonio was about ready to die of embarrassment. Lovino however, glared at Francis with as much ferocity as he could muster.

"Go fuck yourself" he snapped, walking ever so casually behind Antonio, trying to make it look as though he wasn't hiding. Francis shrugged, his job here was done, and trotted upstairs.

"That Bastard needs to leave me the hell alone." Lovino pouted, coming out from behind Antonio.

Antonio sighed again "That might be my fault" he said softly, The moment the words were out of his mouth, Lovino snapped to attention.

"What did you do?" he asked, his voice taking on a dangerous tone. But of course Antonio didn't notice. He never noticed this sort of thing, he hadn't even known that Lovino was genuinely afraid of Francis until Lovino had told him in no uncertain terms. Lovino hadn't wanted to tell him that either, he'd gotten very embarrassed while telling him. So Antonio thought that he may as well explain. Maybe Lovino would understand.

"I didn't really do anything. Francis and Gilbert think I'm in love with you and Francis thinks that if we talk more that you might feel the same, isn't that weird" He smiled awkwardly. "Why've you gone so red?"

Lovino pressed a hand to his scarlet face and drew it away slowly "None of your damn business, ass hole!" he said almost robotically before turning and going up the stairs. What had he done now?

* * *

Pfft, Lovino didn't have a crush. HA he most certainly did not. Okay he might do, only a little one though. Lovino knew exactly what to do with crushes, he'd dealt with them before. And he knew from experience that the best possible way to get rid of a crush was to crush it, stuff it down deep inside, pretend it never happened and avoid that person like the plague. So that's what he had been doing. He'd pretended that the idiot didn't exist, which was really _fucking _difficult when Francis kept kidnapping him and throwing him at Antonio. Yes, that's right, a Vargas man, from a family notorious for womanizing MIGHT like another man. But he'd done his best to ignore it, he'd barely spoke to him and it didn't help that the dreams were coming hadn't slept properly in about two months so he was sleep deprived, which made him worry that he wouldn't be able to watch his tongue properly around Antonio.

And then Antonio had ruined it. Antonio the idiot told him that Francis and Gilbert (bastards) thought that he liked him (There was not a snow ball's chance in hell that he was going to say the other L word that Antonio had used!) And then said it was weird. And that pretty much summed up why Lovino never breathed a word about previous crushes (of which he'd had two) because they'd think it was weird.

So he'd gone above decks, they'd be at the harbour soon anyway, and then he could perhaps get Antonio off the ship, or get his own ship. Either way he needed to be away from Antonio because he didn't need the humiliation.

* * *

"Well?" Francis demanded, when he found Antonio again.

"What?" Antonio asked,

"How did it go, are you together yet? I've never failed before" he smiled. Antonio liked Francis, he was one of his best friends, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to be together with Lovino.

"I told him you thought I loved him, which is weird, and that was why you keep bringing him to see me, and then he left" he replied truthfully.

Francis looked aghast "Did you tell him it was weird?" he asked, his face looked genuinely worried, his eyebrows were slanted and his face had paled a little.

"Yes" he said, starting to realize that whatever he'd said had had a serious impact on his friend.

"And then did he leave?" Francis said, he looked truly distressed.

"He went red first andOW!" he yelped as Francis slapped his head lightly.

"You said it was weird, you've just ruined any feelings he had for you, now he's going to be scared off!" Francis cried melodramatically.

Antonio felt confused "Francis, I'm not even sure I want to be with Lovino in that way" he replied gently.

Francis looked at him "No, we're still friends, but I think I'm going to help Lovino now, after I make friends with him"

"What are you talking about?" Antonio asked.

Francis frowned at him "Because love shouldn't be forced, so I'm not forcing yours. But that doesn't mean that Lovino doesn't deserve to have some kind of love in his life."

* * *

Three hours, it would take about three hours before they got to the harbour, and Romulus still hadn't decided whether Lovino could have his own ship again. Which meant that Lovino would still have to be on a ship with Antonio, because although he _really_ didn't want to be with him at close quarters, he knew that Antonio wouldn't last five minutes alone at any port and he didn't want him dead. Perhaps he'd have a decent nights sleep when he got into a bed that didn't rock constantly...personally he blamed his little stay on that stupid island for his inability to sleep off of dry land.


	14. Chapter 14 Operation befriend Lovino

**I still don't own Hetalia, thanks for reading you brilliant people! (two chapters in one evening, my Mum should be so proud of me)**

The ship was finally in the harbour and now everyone except the unlucky few who were to stay behind and guard the ship were getting ready for shore leave. Lovino looked over the side of the ship, what he needed was a nice day on dry land with some pretty girls to flirt with. A nice day, a good one. And then Francis was at his side "Bonjour my little cousin" he smiled

"Fuck off"

"No, we're spending some quality time together today, Romulus told me to take care of you today" he sang in a happy voice, Lovino could not share in that enjoyment.

"No"

"Why?" Francis pouted in a way eerily similar to both of Lovino's younger brothers...he really hoped that expression never crossed his own face.

"Because I hate you, and because you're going to make me talk to the tomato bastard" he hissed, looking over both shoulders nervously to make sure that no one overheard him.

Francis looked upset "Where did I go wrong, most of our other relatives like me"

Lovino raised an eyebrow "Feliciano's an idiot, Marcello's after flirting tips and Soraphine and Michelle are your half sisters" he replied coldly, he was not in a good mood and didn't really care if he upset Francis anyway, he was scary and Lovino didn't want to spend even a second in that Bastard's company let alone a whole day.

Francis actually laughed "Fair enough," he replied "But you're still coming with me"

Lovino scowled, perhaps he could get away from Francis later, he didn't care if they were distant cousins or something like that.

* * *

Antonio was alone in the forest again, it was always the same clearing, it always had been and odds were that it always would. It was one of the times where he couldn't see Lovino. He'd been thinking about what it would actually be like to have Lovino as a boyfriend, and so far he had established that actually he wouldn't mind, he'd more than not mind. He didn't think he was in love with him yet but he thought that he was well on his way. He liked him a lot, and he would probably write a list stretching from Norway to Australia the long way around of things he liked about him. But he resolved not to say anything until he was certain. Because if he was wrong then it wasn't fair on Lovino...but what if Lovino didn't like him anyway, That would be terrible, really really terrible. The thought that perhaps Lovino didn't like him made his chest hurt quite a lot. Suddenly everything was cold and he woke up in a large puddle of freezing sea water on the deck.

"Wake up Princess we're going ashore!" Gilbert crowed from above Antonio, clutching a bucket in his hands.

"Wh, GILBERT!" Antonio yelled, charging down the gangplank after the noisy Prussian.

* * *

Francis had thrown an arm around Lovino's shoulder and was now ambling around the streets with him...well...Francis was ambling, Lovino was being dragged around like a morose Tuna.

"Come on, Lovino, We're going to have fun!" he exclaimed happily. He was actually looking forward to it, Lovino was an arsehole, and they didn't always get along but Francis did take his being the eldest of the children in the family (shut up, twenty seven was late teens!) Lovino was the second eldest and he guessed that perhaps he had ignored him quite a lot of the time.

"I don't want to" Lovino grumbled.

At which point a woman walked past in what could only be described as the ugliest dress Francis had ever seen.

"From what depths of hell did that dress crawl out of?" Lovino gasped.

"Same place her shoes did" Francis retorted, they looked at each other.

"You like clothes?" they asked in unison.

* * *

Antonio had caught up to Gilbert quickly and after giving him a revenge splash they walked together. "Where are you going anyway, Gil?" Antonio asked

Gilbert straightened up and grinned "I happen to have a date" he smirked with a confidence which Antonio wished he possessed.

"That was fast, who with?" He asked.

Gilbert flushed red "Okay, it's not technically a date," he mumbled "It's someone I've been writing to for a while, he's awesome!" he emphasized the last bit as if trying to prove something.

Antonio nodded "Is it Francis' cousin?" Antonio had hit the nail on the head if the shade of red Gilbert had gone was anything to go by.

"Don't tell him," Gilbert ordered "I can't let him know one of his set ups worked, I'll never live it down!"

"It'll be nice to see him" Antonio smiled

"Yeah...you can wait outside" Gilbert muttered as he strolled through the open doors of an inn. Antonio was shocked for a few moments before sitting down on a broken bench outside.

* * *

It turned out that Francis wasn't bad, Lovino still hated him and Francis was still a Bastard, but at least they had something in common, they appreciated clothes and people who wore them well. They had just spent the better part of the morning looking at the way people were dressed. No matter what anyone said, having a healthy interest in fashion was as manly as hell...when it was him...when it was Francis it was definitely girly!

"Ah, those red shoes, no, blue is much more her colour" Francis grimaced as a woman walked past dressed from head to toe in red. Lovino nodded. It wasn't the women themselves that they were dissecting, it was just their choice of attire, and besides, they also quite liked thinking about what would look better on them. It also turned out that both Francis and Lovino held a deep rooted respect for women which Francis pointed out that in Lovino's case 'Really should extend to men as well, maybe then people won't think you're an arsehole?'

* * *

A small blonde boy raced past him "Alfred! Alfred Jones, you come here right now!" shrieked a voice, Antonio recognized it before he even saw her. Alice Kirkland sped after the boy and managed to catch him, she swang him up onto her hip as he laughed loudly "You can't boss me around, I'm your Grandad!" he exclaimed proudly before letting out a loud peal of laughter.

"I'm still thirteen years your senior, young man and OH MY GOD! Antonio?"


	15. Chapter 15 Nailed it

**I still don't own Hetalia, thanks for reading and reviewing and stuff. Just a warning but this chapter is going to contain a little bit of PruCan but if you want you can skip that bit because it was only a small idea I had.**

**Michelle-Seychelles**

**Soraphine-Monaco**

Gilbert's eyes scanned the inn before he caught sight of the familiar curl. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding before trying to look a little more confident than he felt and sauntering over to Mathew's table.

He was half way there when Mathew caught sight of him and walked over...flanked by two girls.

Gilbert attempted to cover his surprise but his eyes drifted over to the girls who appeared to be in their late teens. Both were pretty, one had dark hair tied back into pigtails with red ribbons and wore a light blue dress. The other girl had a pair of glasses perched on her nose and a plait, she wore a pink dress. Mathew gave him a curious look before realisation crossed his face "These are my cousins, Soraphine and Michelle" he explained, gesturing to the two girls.

Gilbert nodded. He knew about these girls, they were Francis' half sisters. Mathew's parents had been gone through most of his childhood so he'd gone to live with Francis as well and as a result Mathew, Soraphine and Michelle were Francis' treasures.

With the way Francis had always talked about the girls Gilbert had always expected them to be about ten years old, but these girls looked to be almost twenty.

"I couldn't leave them at home," Mathew assured him "I didn't want them to be lonely"

Soraphine and Michelle looked at each other and rolled their eyes "We'd have been fine" Michelle muttered.

Mathew turned his head toward her "I wouldn't be comfortable leaving you behind" he replied curtly.

Gilbert watched the scene "yeah, that's awesome..." he commented, he'd kind of expected to be able to spend the day with Mathew, and then an idea dawned on him "Hey, I've got a friend waiting outside who could look after them"

Mathew pulled a face "Is he trustworthy? I'll need to talk to him first"

Gilbert nodded "He's totally trustworthy...and he's almost got a boyfriend" he noted.

So Gilbert led Mathew and the girls through the inn so Mathew could meet Antonio, they exited the inn. "Hey, Antoni-OH shit he's gone" the bench was empty.

* * *

Antonio trotted after Alice and the boy, they were headed for Alice's house.

"Hey, Alice?" he called.

"Yes" she said, removing the boy from her hip and placing him on the floor, she held his hand firmly to stop him from wondering off.

"That boy you have there-"

"Alfred," she interjected "His name is Alfred"

Antonio nodded and began again "Alfred, he sounds American"

"Well observed, tomorrow we'll do shapes" Alice retorted with a heavily exaggerated roll of her eyes.

Alfred grinned at him "Hell yeah, I'm American!" he exclaimed.

Antonio frowned, was he ever going to get this sentence out? "Yeah, and he said he was your grandfather?"

"Yes, _and?_" Alice growled

"I thought you were more English than crumpets"

"Shut up"

"I thought you were more English than fish and chips"

"Technically fish and chips is Scandinavian"

"I thought you were more English than scones"

"That's enough"

* * *

Francis and Lovino were now just wondering around the dock because a girl had caught them eyeing her dress and gave them a furious look. Without criticizing fashion the two no longer had anything in common to talk about, Francis had tried discussing cooking but Lovino hated French cooking and Francis didn't really know anything about Italian cooking.

They rounded a corner and ran headlong into Gilbert. It wasn't just Gilbert, he was with a man who had blonde hair of a similar style to Francis, who wore a pair of glasses and a shy smile. They were accompanied by two girls, Lovino noted that they dressed well and that one of the girls had a fleeting similarity to Francis in her eyes. With a jolt Lovino realised that these were his sort of cousins by marriage, he hadn't seen them since they were thirteen. Francis seemed to come to his senses first and pulled the trio into a tight hug.

"My Familyyyyyy! Why didn't you tell me you were here?" he exclaimed frantically.

Mathew escaped the hug first "I was going to surprise you tomorrow, I was meeting Gilbert today"

Francis released his sisters "You were meeting Gilbert?" he smirked, glancing over to his friend who held his hands up in defeat.

* * *

Alice's house was not as small as Antonio had expected it to be, he didn't know how long she'd been there but he certainly wasn't expecting the fairly large house he encountered.

"Wow, you landed on your feet" he murmured

Alice smirked "It's not actually my house." she opened the door and Alfred raced in and sat to the table.

"I think it's lunch time" he grinned

Alice groaned "You always think it's lunch time" she smiled fondly as she headed in the direction Antonio assumed the kitchen was...wait..._kitchen_

"Woah, Alice, you aren't actually going to give that kid your cooking to_ eat_" Antonio spluttered.

Alice frowned "Shut the bloody hell up, some people appreciate English cuisine"

* * *

After a flurry of greetings in which Lovino had to re-introduce himself to his own cousins they finally got around to talking normally but Lovino felt like something was missing.

"Hey, I thought you were with the Tomato Bastard?"

"Who?" the group chorused

"Antonio"

Gilbert shrugged "I took my eyes off him for like a second and-"

"He made him wait outside an inn while he went to meet me and he was gone when we came out" Mathew confessed. Gilbert gave him an appalled look.

Lovino rubbed his temples, now came the hard bit. Whether he liked it or not he was very concerned for Antonio's safety, not because he liked the Bastard...okay he did but he was also very worried, but he couldn't let anyone know...but he was an idiot what if he died or something.

"We should find him" FUCK, everyone was looking at him...no...he could fix this "Before the idiot get's himself killed by some bastard" nailed it.


	16. Chapter 16 you're the Mom

**I still don't own Hetalia, thanks for the reviews and stuff (In a good writing mood ^_^)**

Antonio watched Alfred devour the food (if it could be called that) that Alice set before him with a mixture of disgust and respect. It was gone in a flash of cutlery. Alice smiled at him fondly and ruffled his hair affectionately.

"Did you find your person?" Alice asked abruptly.

Antonio was taken aback "What?"

Alice folded her arms "Don't tell me you haven't worked out why you're here?" she grumbled, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

"Um, no" he retorted, he'd forgotten how much he hated her.

Alice sat down "I suppose I did have help..." she muttered.

"An explanation would be nice," Antonio growled "Can you make it quick? Because I don't want to eat here" HA take that, Alice fucking Kirkland!

Alice glared at him "You sir are," She looked over at Alfred who was looking at her inquisitively "a poopy head and a lot of words I'm too nice to say" she finished.

Antonio smirked with Alfred here the sting from Alice's tail was effectively removed...excellent.

"Explanation, _poopy head_" He beamed

Alice scowled and clenched her fists "When he leaves the room you are a corpse!" She snarled, Antonio smiled back at her.

* * *

Lovino trudged after the others, he wanted to make sure Antonio was fine but he didn't want to look like he actually wanted to find him. But nonetheless his eyes were darting to every single person with brown hair. Mathew dropped back until he was stood next to him "Guess what?"

"What?" he asked

"You're not fooling anyone," He grinned, Lovino raised his middle finger "I don't know who Antonio is but I can tell you this for free, you liiiiiiiike him"

Lovino looked alarmed "Fuck off I _know!_" he slammed his hands over his mouth and glared at Mathew who was wheezing with laughter and clutching his ribs.

"I've missed talking to you, I don't get the same comedy effect from your letters" he snickered. The pair had been writing to each other since they met at a family wedding.

"Shut up"

* * *

Alice laced her fingers together and rested her elbows on the table and her face on her hands. "Do you ever have a recurring dreams?" she asked bluntly. Antonio nodded vigorously and Alice nodded back.

"How long for?" She inquired seriously.

"They started when I was five" he replied.

Alice let out a low whistle "Yikes, mine started when I was eighteen," she laughed "And there's a person in the dream?"

"Yes, Lovi, He's my friend" Antonio beamed.

Alice nodded again "Mine was Alfred here, he was five at the time," she smiled softly "Anyway, I talked to another relative when I got here, his name's Arthur. Arthur said that there was magic involved and that I was brought here because Alfred needed something that I only I could provide"

* * *

Lovino was starting to panic now and it was getting harder and harder to cover his worry.

"We'll find him" Michelle assured him with a kind smile

"Yeah, with my level of awesome it's impossible for us not to" Gilbert called from up ahead

Lovino glared at them "I don't remember asking for pity, why would I need pity anyway? Fuck you guys. Why the hell did you leave him on his own dammit!" he ranted, the sky was darkening and they couldn't walk the streets after dark, but hell, Lovino had an awful suspicion that he'd be walking them until he found that idiot.

"I didn't mean to loose him" came Gilbert's voice mournfully

* * *

"Is there a way to get back?" Antonio queried.

"Yes," Alice affirmed gravely "but only if they no longer need what you can give them"

"Oh," Antonio sighed "Well, what does Lovi need?"

Alice rubbed a hand over her face "How the blazes am I supposed to know that?"

Antonio frowned "Well, what did Alfred need"

Alice's face turned a little pink and Alfred sat up in his seat "I needed a Mom" he said nonchalantly.

"Arthur and his relatives are all in the Navy, they leave Alfred for long periods of time so now I'm his nanny" she explained

Alfred shook his head "You're a Mom"

"Not by blood I'm not and not by marriage either, Grandad!"

Alfred stuck his tongue out and Antonio watched in amusement as he watched Alice's conflicted expression as she tried to stop herself from raising two fingers.

"Anyway, that's not all!" Alice announced "Sometimes if they are in dire need of you then you can get called to them, like teleporting, but it's only in absolute emergencies." That might explain why he kept waking up further and further from his hammock and closer to Lovino's (technically Romulus') quarters

"Like when I got lost and fell over and cut my knee, you got to me then" Alfred grinned.

* * *

It was gone midnight and the group had trudged back to the ship. Lovino was now waiting at the top of the gangplank, he was seriously beginning to worry. That's it, he had to find him, he started to march down the plank.

"Lovino, I need to talk to you about your ship" Romulus grinned at him.

"Can it wait? Antonio's still out there" Lovino asked.

Romulus nodded "Yes, of course you're worried, I'll send Francis and Gilbert" upon hearing their names Gilbert and Francis raced down the gangplank and into the harbor.

"I'm not worried. The Bastard could have died and I'm not paying for a coffin" he denied feeling the unwelcome blush rising on his cheeks.

Romulus sighed "Yes, now I've thought about it and done some organising, I've got a ship and a crew for you."

* * *

Antonio was leaving Alice's house now, they'd agreed to write, although not for socializing because absence certainly didn't make the heart grow fonder, absence made you realise how much of an arse hole the other was. They were only going to write to work out what was going on, who knew how many others there were like them in the world.

It was dark now, he'd had no idea that it had gotten so late.

.

.

.

perhaps Lovino had missed him, maybe that was just wishful thinking.


	17. Chapter 17 Leaving

**I still don't own Hetalia, thank you for reading and reviewing and all that stuff ^_^ in this chapter there is the merest, tiniest hint of past FrUK but to be honest it's probably easily ignored and there's only a little bit anyway. I thought I should warn you because I know that it's a pairing that you either love or hate and this is meant to be Spamano, sorry.**

Finding Antonio was proving to be pretty difficult, on the plus side there weren't a lot of people out on the streets at that time in the...well shit, it was morning. Mathew and the girls were waiting back at the ship for their safe arrival. Francis knew that Lovino was to get his new ship and he knew that he was set to leave with him...he wondered how Lovino would take that. But he did spot Antonio's name on the list as well and Gilbert was going with Lovino so he could jump ship to be with his brother on Feliciano's ship.

The streets were twisted and Francis wasn't really sure where he was going. And then he heard some chattering one of those accents was distinctly Spanish.

Francis and Gilbert rounded the corner "ANTONIO!" they exclaimed

Antonio looked up from his conversation with a small blonde woman. "Hola" he beamed at them. Francis ignored him in favour of looking at the girl he was accompanying.

She looked familiar, he knew those eyes.

"Do you know Arthur Kirkland?" Francis asked cutting across whatever it was Antonio was talking about.

"Yes, I'm his niece. My names Alice, what's yours?" the girl replied

"I'm Francis Bonnefoy, He'd probably mentioned me a lot" he declared.

Alice shook her head "Never heard of you" she noted.

Francis felt his face fall a mile, "Not even once? Not once in...I should go back and tell everyone Antonio's alright" he muttered before running off. He could hear Gilbert yell and start to follow him but he didn't really care.

* * *

Apparently the ship was already packed and ready to go. In payment for the ship all Lovino had to do was deliver Mathew, Soraphine and Michelle back home and drop Gilbert onto his brother's ship. That seemed to be simple, but what if Antonio wanted to go with him? He couldn't last so long with him again. Francis ran up the gangplank with a distressed look on his face. Lovino immediately feared the worst, he could have been stabbed, he could have been badly injured, he could have died!

"What happened, where is he?" Lovino exclaimed.

Francis looked at him as though he'd only just noticed he was there. "He's fine, he was with a Kirkland girl." he responded distractedly before walking off below decks. Gilbert sprinted up the gangplank seconds later, he didn't say a word he simply followed Francis.

"You're taking him with you, I assume" Romulus asked, watching Gilbert leave.

Lovino shook his head "No, all I needed to know was that he was alright," Lovino murmured absently as moving away from the gunwales. "Get the others ready, I'm going to get on my ship"

* * *

Gilbert and Francis had run off pretty quickly, Antonio wasn't entirely sure what had happened but he knew that whatever Alice had said had upset Francis. But they'd come to check on him so maybe Lovino really was worried? The thought shouldn't have brought a small smile to his face but it did. It was nice to think that Lovino actually cared about him. Maybe he should try to spend more non-Francis instigated time with him, then maybe he could find out once and for all what he felt for Lovino and what Lovino felt in return.

* * *

"Are you sure about leaving him here?" Romulus asked placing his hand on his eldest son's shoulder.

"Completely" Lovino replied quietly. He wasn't, his heart was screaming at him that this was the worst thing he could do in the whole world, his brain was telling him that the pain would be worth it and that he didn't need something stupid like a crush. All it was was a crush, something small and insignificant that could be fixed if he pushed it down deep enough inside. What did a crush get you anyway? Stupidity humiliation and crushing heart break. He'd been there before, he'd allowed crushes to manifest twice before, both had been stupid, he'd liked a girl who he knew once before, he got over it quickly when he realised that he only thought he liked her because he was unused to having female friends. She'd gone on to be like a big sister to him. He'd also had a crush on someone imaginary, a smiling idiot like Antonio. It seemed he had a type...smiling and stupid.

* * *

Antonio resolved that he would spend the whole day with Lovino the next day, they had a whole week of shore leave, maybe then he could work out whether he should ask Lovino to go out with him or something? He was happy to ponder Lovino's feelings, he had spent a lot of time considering what to do if Lovino didn't like him so now he was thinking about what to do if Lovino did. He was so cute. "Stop smiling like that, it's bloody creepy" Alice snapped from beside him.

"Sorry, is it painful for you to see me happy?" He smiled.

"Yes," she retorted "What do you have to grin about? Idiot"

Antonio took a few quick steps to catch up with her "My Lovi"

"Eugh, may I just say that couples are gross" she retorted, wrinkling her nose as though something smelled horrendous.

"We're not a couple" he replied.

"You're not, huh, you talk as though you are. What, are you too annoying for him? Poor little git" she laughed but stopping abruptly when she saw the devastatingly miserable look on his face

"I might be, he didn't look very pleased when I told him my friends were trying to set us up" he remarked sadly.

"Y' know, you might actually be stupid" Alice chided.

"I think you might be right"

* * *

Lovino was back in his element, shouting orders and getting his ship ready to leave before Antonio got back, he didn't think he could survive saying goodbye to him. Not that he was being girly and shit, this was manly dammit! It was manly as fuck to run away from someone you kinda liked and sorta loved. FUCK IT! He didn't love him, he only liked him! This was just a stupid crush and dammit he'd be over it by the next time he saw his father.

"Hey ass hole, Antonio's not on board yet" Gilbert yelled.

"That's Captain, and I know, you can write your goodbyes to the bastard." Lovino growled back.

"Captain ass hole! You can't leave him, do you even know what that shit will do to him?" Gilbert snarled. Francis ran between them, he'd been sulking for a while.

"What's going on?" he asked

"He wants to leave without Toni" Gilbert spat.


	18. Chapter 18 going, going, gone

**I still don't own Hetalia, Thank you so much for all the reviews and such ^_^ Sorry this took as long as it did, I have a bit of writers block...by which I mean I've had a load of inspiration for more Spamano fics than I can probably handle, sorry...it's another pirate one sorryyyy.**

Antonio had made his way up the gangplank with a new resolve, he hadn't even said goodbye to Alice. He just had to find Lovino and talk to him, easy. Antonio smiled a little to himself, if Lovino had been worried about him, perhaps he could give him a hug? Not that he was looking for a relationship quite yet, he just wanted to know Lovino's feelings, for now. He looked around but couldn't see Lovino anywhere, in fact, there were quite a few people missing. He walked around for a bit and couldn't see Francis or Gilbert anywhere either. Eventually he seized a passing member of the crew by their shoulders.

"Where is everyone?" he asked with only a hint of anxiety in his words.

"I dunno, I think a few of us have jumped ship to the Captain's son's new ship" answered the man.

Antonio stood for a few moments before laughing "Sorry, I think I misheard you, who's ship?".

"The Captain's eldest son. They left a while ago"

What? WHAT! Antonio charged down the gangplank before running back to the random crew member "Which ship is Lovi's" he demanded.

"Lovi's?" stammered stammered the young man, his face paling by several shades.

"Lovi! Lovino, the Captain's son" he snapped in return.

"Fucking hell, just raise the anchor you dumfuck!" screeched an Italian accented voice from not very far away.

"Never mind, I know which one it is" Antonio hissed before sprinting down the gangplank towards the sound of the voice.

"Hurry the fuck up!" Shrieked Lovino's voice.

Oh hell no, he was not going to be left behind.

* * *

Lovino tried to chivvy his crew along as best he could, he needed to get out of there and his throat was still hurting from his screaming match with Gilbert. He hadn't even met his first mate yet, his father had appointed whoever the fuck it was.

"Hurry the fuck up!" he roared at his crew, a few of them gave him reproachful looks which was never a good sign. Fuck. He'd explain everything to them later...maybe not everything.

"Lovino Vargas!" The voice came from a long way off, but it was close enough to send a jolt of electricity down his spine. No no no, he couldn't see him, he couldn't. Shit.

He jumped down next to the men raising the anchor and started to help them, swearing viciously the entire time. The anchor hoist seemed to be stiff, he supposed that was what happened with seemingly old ships.

"Lovi, stop!" Antonio yelled. His chest hurt, maybe this was a bad idea, maybe he could stop this and just deal with any heart break that came his way like a man.

The hoist gave way and they were able to hoist anchor. They weren't going to make it, they might get far enough away so that he couldn't get aboard, but he'd see him and Lovino didn't know what he'd do, because if he saw his bastard face then he didn't think he could go through with leaving. He considered heading for his quarters to hide. God dammit. The ship began to move.

"No, stop!" Lovino didn't know whether he was hearing things or not. It would have been so easy to stop, he wasn't that far from the dock. No, this was kinder to both of them. Much better to leave now then to scare Antonio away when he found out how Lovino felt or jumped ship to Feliciano's because he was a better Captain with a nicer face and painting skills that could bring tears to the eyes of experts and all that other shit that Lovino clearly didn't care about. It was always much worse when they left him, better he leave now before he became overly attached.

He hadn't realised that he'd sat down next to the gunwales with his knees drawn up to his chest and his back planted firmly on the wood. He stood to leave and caught sight of the lonely figure with brown hair on the edge of the harbor. He snapped his eyes shut, he didn't need to see, he was almost entirely certain that the expression on Antonio's face looked similar to the one on his own. He stalked off to his quarters.

* * *

Lovino had been gone for about three weeks. Francis and Gilbert too. Of course Antonio had gone back to Romulus' ship to try to get him to go after his son. But with the crew being as depleted as they were the ship couldn't leave the port for another week so that they could gather together more men. Antonio was angry and upset and hurt and dammit, why did he leave? He really really really liked him it wasn't fair that he would just _leave_ with his two best friends in tow.

Romulus had noticed Antonio's rather listless performance as a pirate and had tried to raise his spirits by having a little meeting with Antonio featuring a bottle of wine and a basket of tomatoes. It hadn't worked. The worst part was the loneliness, he could chat to the other members of the crew but none of them were the same as the three he had lost.

* * *

**Sorry, the next one will be longer, I ran out of words.**


	19. Chapter 19 Pirated Pirates

**I still don't own Hetalia, Thanks for reading and reviewing and stuff ^_^ Sorry this took so long, I had writers block and then decided to start an Ask Mama Britannia blog on tumblr. **

Lovino had been wrong, doing it quickly was a bad idea. He missed Antonio and it had only been about twenty five minutes (No he wasn't counting). He had locked himself in his quarters but he could still just about hear Antonio, he'd have been able to see him too if he hadn't closed the curtains.

Any one would have thought the Spaniard was having his arms removed with the way he was yelling instead of having the biggest nuisance of his life leave. Lovino slumped in his chair and put his face in his arms. He sniffled quietly. He was _not _going to cry. He had cried in battle, he had cried when his mother left him and he'd cried when he first met Francis, but dammit he was not going to cry over some stupid tomato bastard who didn't even like him that much anyway.

There was a sharp knock at the door "Oi, Ass hole, your first mate is here to meet you" Gilbert growled from the other side of the door. Clearly Gilbert, king of the fuck heads was not going to handle this like an adult.

"Be nicer, Antonio's not the only one hurting!" he heard Francis yell.

He heard a soft murmur of a question but he wasn't listening. "Go away" Lovino snapped.

He couldn't be bothered, god dammit was it too much to ask that every one left him alone at least until he couldn't actually hear Antonio any more. Why did he have to be stuck with a crew who couldn't keep their noses out of his business for more than five seconds.

He heard a muffled conversation and then the door was kicked in, falling clean off the hinges and narrowly missing Lovino's desk.

Lovino jumped up from his chair "What in the great blue fuck!" he shrieked, he hadn't known his voice could get that high.

and then the little ball of energy that was his first mate bustled into the room.

"Lovino?"

"Femke?"

The small Belgian looked at him with her hands on her hips "Why is there a man at the dock screaming his heart out?" she asked with the accusatory tone she had always used when they were children.

"Why didn't you knock before you kicked my fucking door in!" Lovino hissed.

"Same reason you left that man on the dock" Femke retorted, folding her arms.

Lovino hit her with the best glare he had in his arsenal "And what would that be?"

"You're in love," she said softly. Lovino began to splutter out a protest but Femke silenced him with a mere raising of her hand "You're not kidding yourself and you're certainly not kidding me. So is leaving men on the dock a regular thing for you when you like someone? Or is he a special case?" she asked, perching herself on the table.

"He's a special case" Lovino grumbled swiveling his eyes away from Femke's.

"I thought so" Femke smiled, her terrifying anger subsiding as quickly as it arose.

* * *

Nearly a month passed, Lovino successfully managed to drop Mather, Michelle and Soraphine back home, though not without what was possibly the second most dramatic farewell he had ever seen (minus every single time he had to leave Feliciano).

Mathew had been determined to stay on Lovino's ship and be with Gilbert, Francis wanted Mathew to stay on the relatively safe land with Soraphine and Michelle. What followed was the grandmother of all rows, Lovino had never actually seen Mathew yell before and Gilbert joining forces with Francis to explain that he would be safer on land which led to Mathew trying to persuade Gilbert to leave with him... suffice to say it wasn't pretty.

And now Lovino was headed for Feliciano's ship and it should take about a month or so to get there.

Femke had been unbearable for the entire journey, she'd always been something like a big sister to him and she seemed to be taking the role far too much to heart. Lovino had been about ninety per-cent sure that he had been doing a pretty fucking amazing job at pretending that he was alright (which he was, no way was he sulking over that damn tomato bastard!) that was what he thought until the Belgian came bounding over him to start questioning him about Antonio in front of his entire fucking crew. He'd tried to brush it off but he had the suspicion that she'd been talking to Francis...she might have even written to his father.

Lovino had resorted to spending long periods of time in his quarters. Femke came in regularly because he no longer had a fucking door due to her kicking it in on her first day.

It was dark now. He'd spent the entire day sulking and studying maps. He sensed a presence by the door.

"Femke? Francis? Gilbert? Someone had better have died" Lovino growled, not even bothering to look up from the map he was studying.

"I'm afraid not, Captain" Lovino looked up. The man stood by the door was not a member of his crew. He was tall, blonde and had an idiot grin, not quite Antonio's level of idiot grin but there was definitely an air of the stupids around him.

"Who the fuck are you?" Lovino asked starting to reach for the emergency mustache he kept in his draw for just such an occasion.

"Captain Mathias Kohler. We've kind of taken over the ship" Smiled the idiot.

Lovino decided to do the sensible thing...he threw the mustache into Mathias' face and ran like hell...head first into the scariest man he had ever encountered.

"Berwald, quick, grab him!" The other Captain yelled. Berwald hit Mathias with a glare before grabbing Lovino by the back of his collar.

Lovino was tied to the bilboes of the neighboring ship. He was alongside Femke who had fought valiantly to get loose proof of which was evident in the limp that one of the enemy pirates named Tino sported. That particular kick had led to the tall man named Berwald giving her an angry look every time he passed her.

"Do you think they've got something going on?" Femke asked, wriggling her eyebrows and nodding towards the pair.

"Fuck if I know." Lovino was angry, they could have fought these guys. Lovino wasn't much one for fighting, he used to hide until it was over when he was younger and up until recently the mere mention of the name Vargas was enough to send any enemy skittering in the opposite direction. One thing was for certain, he would never again leave Herakles on watch duty.

"Definitely something going on" Femke remarked as Berwald flushed scarlet during a desperate attempt to talk to Tino who apparently was having difficulty understanding him.

"Why do you even care" Lovino groaned, leaning over to gently knock his forehead against the deck.

"What else is there to do besides people watch?" The Belgian asked coolly.

"Perhaps...seagull watch" mumbled Herakles helpfully before snorting loudly and turning in his sleep.

The days seemed to blur into each other, why Mathias was just waiting in the middle of the Ocean next to Lovino's abandoned ship was beyond him. If Lovino were in a similar situation he would have been out of there like a bat out of hell.

Lovino had of course attempted an escape. He was responsible for his crew and dammit he wasn't going to let them die! There was a lot that they needed to do. Francis needed to see his sisters and Mathew again, Gilbert needed to join Feliciano's crew, Femke was getting married next year, Herakles had a house full of cats and a boyfriend to feed and dammit, Lovino wanted to see Antonio again.

The third escape attempt had led to Lovino's pockets being turned out and having his hands feet and elbows tied to the bilboes. He had no clue what the Scandinavian pirates wanted with his ship or crew, he hadn't heard his name mentioned yet so the chances were that they weren't going to be ransomed off to Lovino's father. Fuck would that be embarrassing.

Lovino curled up to sleep, he felt a sudden chill but he supposed going to sleep outside would do that to you.

**Sorry this was kind of a weird chapter, I knew what I wanted to happen but not how to write it. Sorry**


	20. Chapter 20 First thing in the morning

**It's good writing weather. We have a thunder storm going outside. My puppy is alternating between curling up on my lap and going outside to bark at it. Thank you for reading and such. You guys are awesome.**

Lovino felt a heavy weight in his lap. It was a warm weight and oddly comforting. Slowly Lovino cracked his eyes open. Still outside, still cold, still with his head resting on his bound hands. Femke had spread out in her sleep to the extent where her feet were brushing Herakles who was tied to the next bilboe along. But if it wasn't Femke warming his lap then who was it. Lovino looked down, Antonio lay with his head and most of his torso on Lovino's upper legs. His curly brown hair had spread around him, he was snoring softly and Lovino noticed that he'd changed clothes since he had last seen him because the strange clothes were gone.

Lovino froze, this must be some kind of dream, how did he get here. He couldn't move, Antonio would wake and then...He'd be angry, he knew he would be. Lovino didn't want Antonio to be angry with him. He couldn't even picture Antonio being angry ever but he knew his heart probably couldn't take it.

Femke groaned somewhere to the left and Lovino found himself shushing her. "Lovino?" she whispered, clearly confused that the first thing she had heard upon waking was a violent 'SHHHHH!'.

Lovino nodded and shushed her again. Femke's eyes darted downwards to the man in Lovino's lap and a cat like smile spread across her face.

"Is that?" she asked, green eyes widening. Lovino nodded again.

Antonio shifted his weight and although Lovino's leg had decided to go to sleep and Antonio was hurting his legs he didn't move. The sharp pain in his legs finally convinced Lovino that he wasn't actually asleep anymore along with the sharp pain in his chest when Antonio opened his eyes.

Antonio's vivid green eyes looked happy for a few moments, then they hardened and Lovino experienced what he thought might very well be the first scowl ever to appear on the face of Antonio Fernandez Carriedo and it _hurt_.

"Hello" Lovino murmured nervously, he wasn't really sure what to say apart from sorry but apologies had never come naturally to him.

Antonio sat up and started to say something but a man arrived before even a syllable could leave his mouth. The man had blonde hair with a curl that looked oddly similar to Lovino's. Lovino glared at him but had just enough time and length of rope on his own bindings to yank Antonio's wrists so he looked like his hands were also tied to the bilboes before the man looked at them.

"You're the Captain of your ship, right?" The man asked, his face barely moving as he spoke.

Lovino nodded and was surprised to find that after everything he still cowered behind Antonio.

"Our Captain wants to talk to you" The man said, a hint of scorn crept into his voice when he said Captain. He untied Lovino's hands and feet and thankfully didn't pay any attention to Antonio.

* * *

Antonio had sort of known something like this would happen. He'd been having the dreams again but Lovino just didn't seem to be able to hear him. Even so, when he woke up he was happy because Lovino was there, and then he remembered how unutterably angry he was with Lovino and how hurt he was and he frowned. He almost wished he hadn't frowned at Lovino because he pulled the most dejected and miserable face he had ever seen. Lovino said "Hello" and Antonio was about to either apologize or say something that he would probably regret later but abruptly Lovino seized his wrists and pressed them insistently against the cold metal holding Lovino to the ship. And then a man with a blank face took Lovino away.

"What's your name?" asked a curious voice from beside him. Antonio looked to the left and came face to face with a pretty blonde girl who was probably the reason Lovino left, Antonio was usually against not liking someone before you got to know them but he made an exception in this particular case.

"Antonio" he replied.

The girl smiled "I'm Femke. Lovino talks about you a lot"

Antonio struggled to believe that, Lovino had abandoned him and he was angry about it. He was capable of anger, it didn't happen often but when Antonio was angry Antonio was _angry_.

Femke waited for a reply but when none came she heaved a sigh "Your name is Antonio Carriedo, Lovino says you're annoying as fuck. He also says you guys were on an island together. He's actually pretty fond of you." She added.

"Fond enough to leave me behind" Antonio grumbled, she seemed friendly but Antonio really didn't want to like her.

"Yes, actually. He's got a bad habit of running away from people he likes." Femke replied defensively.

"Well you'd better watch out because it's only a matter of time before he leaves you at a dock" Antonio muttered, more to himself than anyone else.

Femke gave him a funny look "It's too late for that. He ran away from me when he was nine, but that wasn't like he ran from you, He ran from me because he wasn't used to having close friends"

Antonio frowned, "Then why did he leave me behind?"

Femke raised her eyebrows "I think that's up to him to tell you, because if I do he'll run off again"

Antonio looked at the deck, He'd been hoping that he would just magically be over Lovino by now. He hadn't even been sure whether he liked Lovino in quite that way, he knew he liked him but since Lovino's departure he had just been more and more sure that he liked him, but he'd also got more and more angry. Perhaps angry wasn't the word, maybe upset was more what he was going for. Lovino didn't even seem to have been effected which some how made everything a hundred times worse.

"He hardly ever leaves his quarters, you know," Femke said softly "We were actually really worried about him"

"ANTONIO!" Antonio looked over his shoulder to see two beaming familiar faces. Gilbert and Francis looked so happy to see him.

"HOLA!" Antonio yelled cheerfully. He almost ran over to them before he remembered that he was supposed to be pretending to be tied to the ship.

**I got ill about half way through writing this and when I'm ill my writing turns to shit. Sorry. But the next chapter should be better ^_^**


	21. Chapter 21 Escape plan

**I still don't own Hetalia, (Sorry it's a little late) Thanks for reading and reviewing and such ^_^ Victoria eMCee, I guess having a puppy in your lap is kinda like having Spain in your lap but I really hope Spain doesn't eat from the bin like my dog does -_-  
**

Lovino was led through the ship and towards the Captain's quarters. The man who was leading him stopped abruptly and knocked sharply at the door.

"Is that you Lukas?" Called the boisterous voice from within that could only belong to the loud mouth Captain.

The man heaved an exasperated sigh "Yes, I've brought Captain Vargas"

The door swang open and the beaming idiot of a man was revealed "Excellent, Come on in" Lovino was dragged into the room and seated in a chair opposite Captain Kohler

"What do you want?" Lovino hissed, trying to sound considerably more confident than he felt.

"You're a Vargas, right?" Asked the man who Lovino assumed was Danish or from around that area.

Lovino didn't see any point in denying it. "Yes"

"Well then, you must have a crap tonne of treasure, yes?"

Lovino snorted "I've only been at sea with this crew and ship for about a month. We haven't robbed anyone"

Captain Kohler's face fell before his grinned bounced back as though it were never gone. "But Your father is sure to pay well to have his middle child returned, am I right Feliciano"

"Perhaps, but I'm not the middle child. I'm Lovino" Lovino spat back in retaliation, realizing shortly after wards that this was not to his advantage at all and that if anything he was putting himself and his crew at risk.

"What do you mean you're not Feliciano, you have a ship made from pale wood, a blonde first mate and that curly thing with your hair!" Mathias spluttered as if he were surprised he had got something wrong.

"Feliciano's first mate is a fuck ugly German ass hole, My first mate is a cute Belgian _girl_" Lovino retorted curtly. He hated Feliciano's first mate, he wasn't a hundred per-cent on why but he knew he was an ass hole.

There was a short silence in which the Dane tried to salvage the situation which was falling apart before his eyes. "No matter, I expect he'll pay to have his eldest returned safe and sound"

* * *

Antonio was overjoyed to see his friends again. He'd been having a shouted conversation with them. He'd tried speaking French to them so that Femke wouldn't listen in but apparently she understood French and Antonio's German left a lot to be desired. He found out that indeed Lovino had locked himself in his room but Francis and Gilbert were giving him very conflicting messages about the young Italian.

"He shouldn't have left you anyway!" On the one hand Gilbert made a very good point, Antonio was still upset about Lovino doing that.

"He only did it because he hides from those he loves!" Francis was Lovino's cousin so he must know and Antonio quite liked to think that perhaps Lovino loved him but that also annoyed him because really he should be much more angry about the whole leaving him behind thing.

"Well that's stupid"

"Actually," Femke stated, glaring at Gilbert "Lovino gets scared of the other person rejecting him. He didn't do it to hurt Antonio"

Francis nodded to her in agreement but Gilbert pulled a face "I like Lovino but he's a little shit for abandoning Toni like that"

Femke and Gilbert shared a heated look at each other, their urges to protect their friends clashing.

Antonio sighed he didn't know what to do, and his main problem was that a large part of him just wanted to hug Lovino but another part kept telling him to at the very least tell Lovino how upset he was. He was also concerned about what exactly had happened on Lovino's ship for the entire crew to end up tied to bilboes on a northern European ship.

"Why are we here anyway?" Antonio asked raising his hands in the air in exasperation. He was hoping for a change of subject, he'd had enough of his friends arguing about whether or not Lovino was even worth the effort.

The trio explained that the ship had been overwhelmed when the look out fell asleep, the rest of the crew had been sleeping and the next thing they knew they were all on the other ship and had been for a while now.

* * *

Tino was sat on the Gunwales on the ship, it was nice to have a break now and then but he liked to keep busy. He honestly thought that maybe the Captain was going a little far, he didn't have any children of his own but he was a hundred percent sure that if anyone kidnapped any child of his then there wouldn't be a place in the world that they could safely hide.

He heard a jabbering conversation that sounded a bit like an argument between some of the rival crew but they weren't speaking in a language that he understood so he ignored them, or he was until he saw a brunette amongst them who he didn't recognize raising their hands in the air. He wasn't tied.

Tino sprang into action, he leapt from his seat on the edge of the ship and charged towards the group. He tackled the man to the ground, hearing an alarmed shriek from one of his friends and an aggrieved whine from the man beneath him.

"Tino?" asked Emil, Lukas' little brother.

"Emil, get some rope, this one came loose!" Tino exclaimed, he struggled to keep the man on the deck, he was a strong man but the man who was now yelling was moving too much to get a good enough grip on him.

He heard Emil's bare feet smacking the deck as he ran to find the rope. He wouldn't have far to go, Berwald had left rope in practical places all over the ship in case they were ever attacked.

Emil returned shortly with a length of rope in his hands, it was a little thick for it's intended purpose but Tino and Emil managed to get the man tied to the ship. "I don't remember that one" Emil muttered, furiously rubbing a bruise that was fast appearing on his arm from where one of the man's flailing limbs had struck him.

"I don't either" Tino replied, he'd have to talk to someone about this...perhaps not Lukas, not after Emil got bruised.

* * *

Lovino was led back onto the deck and retied next to Antonio who was looking a little worse for wear. "The fuck happened to you?" Lovino asked, noting that Antonio's hair was much more messy than usual and that he was looking fairly scruffy in general. Antonio was about to answer when Lovino caught sight of the binding at Antonio's wrist "When the hell did that happen?" he exclaimed, he looked back to Antonio's eyes.

"I don't really know, this little guy sort of ran at me and then he and his friend tied me here" Antonio replied, Femke nodded in affirmation.

Lovino scowled, but decided to leave his unwilling concern for the time being. "I found out what they wanted" he said, looking to Femke, as Captain important matters should be discussed with the first mate. "They want to ransom me back to my father, I don't know about the rest of you, so we need to work out an escape plan."


	22. Chapter 22 Nightmares

**Remember all that nice stuff I said about my puppy...ignore it, the little shit broke my finger on a dogwalk XD Sorry this took so long, I've been suddenly and unexpectedly accepted into a university to do an Archaeology course, then I had a load to do and then I went to the minor injuries unit for my finger. I still don't own Hetalia, thanks for reading and such**

As it turned out, Lovino's crew was stupid. Every single idea they had for escape required at least one of them to be untied, which would have been fine had Antonio not ended up tied to the stupid fucking ship in the first place. It was getting dark now, several members of both crews were going to sleep. Antonio tried to stretch as well as he could whilst bound to the ship, he managed to click his back which in turn made Lovino grit his teeth because fuck if that wasn't the nastiest sound in the world.

"How did you get here?" Lovino asked, the question had been plaguing him all day but he'd only found the opportunity now.

Antonio shrugged "I woke up here, I talked to Alice about it and..." Lovino stopped listening, was that the girl Antonio had been seeing at the harbour, he knew there may not have been anything in it and what should he care if Antonio had found himself a nice girl, didn't affect him, not at all.

"Lovi?"

"Hmm"

"Are you listening"

"That's nice"

"You aren't," Antonio sighed "Alice is like me, and she says that we're drawn to a person who needs us when they need us, but only for a certain thing"

Lovino snorted "Oh really? Like what? And how do you even know"

Antonio was about to tell him about the dreams and what he thought they meant but stopped himself, he remembered Romulus telling him never to tell Lovino of the dreams, though he still wanted to know why not.

"I just do, but if we found out what you needed on the island then perhaps I can get out of the rope" Antonio replied.

Lovino rolled his eyes "Oh yes, you were just what I needed, some idiot who traipsed after me and lost my only fishing hook" he muttered sarcastically.

Antonio looked down at the deck "I don't know what you needed but I'll find out"

Lovino heaved a sigh "Even if what you said was true, and I'm not saying it is, bastard, but even if it was...maybe you're too close for that to work"

Antonio nodded but decided not to push it any further, by the sounds of things Lovino thought he was mad anyway.

Lovino was just starting to go to sleep when he heard a soft voice from next to him "Why did you leave me behind?"

Lovino sat up straight again, Antonio nearly jumped a foot in the air confirming Lovino's suspicion that the man thought he was asleep.

"We're not going to talk about that, Bastard" he replied, he looked into Antonio's eyes fiercely to let him know that he was serious but it appeared that Antonio read the look in his eyes as 'Let's talk about this some more, Antonio, nothing would give me greater joy'

"I just want to know why?" Antonio replied looking back into Lovino's eyes in a way that wasn't as vicious as the way that Lovino looked into his but they still held a degree of stubbornness which Lovino realised he couldn't match.

Lovino groaned loudly "Why?"

Antonio frowned slightly "Because you didn't even warn me"

"I left because you were taking too damn long, I'm a Captain I can't wait around all day for idiots like you" Lovino had felt that his lie was going well until Antonio laughed, actually laughed and not in the normal Antonio way either, it was actually bitter which he hadn't been expecting at all.

"That's not what Femke said"

Lovino scowled and blushed, two things which were happening far too often recently (the blushing was pissing him off more than anything)

"Femke doesn't know when to keep her damn mouth shut about shit she doesn't know" Lovino growled, had he not been tied to the bilboe he would have turned away.

"I think she knows a lot, she knows more about you than I do" Antonio remarked, more to himself than anyone else.

Lovino glared at him "That's not hard and dammit she doesn't know anything!"

"Lovino, I want a straight answer!" Antonio exclaimed, only to be shushed by the rest of Lovino's crew.

"Just go to sleep" Lovino hissed turning as far from Antonio as possible before flopping down on the deck and pretending to sleep.

* * *

Femke noticed that something was of between Antonio and Lovino when she woke up, she may not have known Antonio very long but she was fairly certain that he and Lovino were warming up to each other again. But Lovino was huddled as far from Antonio as humanly possible to the point where his arm was twisted to an almost painful degree. Antonio was also doing his best to be apart from him. Femke sighed, she didn't remember having this trouble when she got together with her fiance. Lovino was frowning and starting to kick his feet. He must be having the dream again, he'd never told her what they were about but she knew she needed to wake him up. She twisted so that she could nudge him gently in the ribs with her foot "Lovino, Lovino wake up" Unfortunately her foot just barely brushed him and she couldn't wake him, but she was closer to Antonio.

* * *

Ow, ow, _OW! _Antonio sat up, to find that Femke was kicking his side. "What?" he asked, he was tired and not sure what was going on.

"Wake him up" She cried frantically, nodding to Lovino who was shaking and flailing in his sleep. Antonio didn't need to be told twice he shuffled over to Lovino's side and tapped his knee to his side as gently as he could while Lovino could still feel it.

"Lovino, LOVI!" He half yelled and half pleaded, he hated to see Lovino look so distressed. It took a while before Lovino's eyes finally opened, by which time his chest was rising and falling rapidly with the speed at which he was breathing. Lovino sat up shaking.

Antonio wanted to pull him close but he couldn't while being tied. Femke however managed to calm him without even touching him, a feat which made Antonio feel a little jealous.

"It's okay, Lovino, we're here, you're safe" Femke soothed and slowly Lovino's breathing returned to normal.

"What happened?" Antonio asked anxiously.

"I was planning how to get the fuck off of here" Lovino retorted shakily, it was an obvious lie but Antonio could see that he didn't want to speak so he decided to humour him.

"Really? Because I've had an idea"

"That's dangerous" Lovino replied, managing a smile but he looked more worried than anything else.


	23. Chapter 23 Failing

**Sorry again for how long the last chapter took, thanks for reading and stuff and I'm SORRYYYYYYYYYYYY!.**

Antonio's plan as it turned out was stupid, "We need to have an argument" Antonio announced as though it was the greatest idea he had ever had, and it may well have been.

"We're already in an argument" Lovino snapped, Antonio didn't reply for a long while

"We need to be separated and then that magic thing will work" he grinned.

"Ugh, this again," Lovino grumbled. Maybe it was because he was still shaken from the nightmare but Lovino found his resolve crumbling "Fine, what should we argue about?"

Francis leaned over from the other bilboe "Nothing causes an argument like love" he smirked, clearly not having heard a word of the previous conversation or maybe he was as mad as Antonio.

"What about an argument over Femke?" suggested Herakles.

Femke sighed in exasperation "Do you not think they'll notice my engagement ring?" she asked, nodding to the thin gold band encircling her finger.

"Well we need to argue about something" Antonio cried.

Lovino felt a headache coming on and apparently someone needed to be the responsible adult here.

"Antonio, you're a Bastard and an idiot!" Lovino yelled

the crew fell silent and Antonio's eyes widened until he realised that Lovino's words were not said viciously and his eyes were soft, he gave a silent 'oh' of understanding.

"W, well you're a shit Captain!" He shouted back, it was difficult to think of things to say to Lovino that wouldn't upset him because he didn't want to.

"He doesn't even like tomatoes!" Francis exclaimed from the sidelines, he was either trying to be helpful or was looking forward to seeing how this turned out, either way the argument escalated from there.

* * *

Mathias was _trying _to do important Captain things...okay, by important captain things what he actually meant was eating... but then there was a deafening noise from above. He stormed out of the galley and up the stairs, fixing his 'terror of the seas' face onto his face. He didn't want to have to take any chances if there was another crew attacking him, he was after all the most fearsome pirate on the seas...except from the infamous Kirkland and Vargas families, but on meeting Lovino, Mathias decided that the title was not deserved.

He threw open the doors to the deck to find that the little captain and a curly haired crew member were yelling and screaming at each other. He could see Lukas and Berwald trying to untie them to keep them apart but things didn't seem to be going well. "Tomato hating shit!"

"I'm not the one who hates tomatoes! You, you're not the man I thought you were!"

"SILENCE!" Mathias bawled, great, now his throat hurt. Both crews fell silent but the two troublesome men were huffing and glaring at each other.

"What's going on?" Mathias asked

"He's a bastard is what's going on!" Lovino shrieked before lunging at the other man only to be held still by Lukas. Lukas was strong but the action had taken him by surprise and by rights Lovino should have been able to break free but he didn't...A fact that wasn't missed by Mathias.

"Stop untying them," he ordered Berwald "They're faking"

* * *

Well, Antonio was actually surprised that his plan hadn't work, as quickly as it had started the people around them were disappearing. He felt the crushing reality that they weren't going to get out.

"It was a nice try" Femke reassured them with a soft smile on her face. Lovino thumped his head onto the metal. Antonio sighed, he probably didn't even believe him anyway. He let his head join Lovino's on the bilboe.

"Hey," Lovino whispered, Antonio looked at him, trying not to look as pathetic as he felt. Lovino buried his head in Antonio's shoulder "Do you think you could do the magic thing on your own?"

Antonio took a moment to even register that Lovino was talking let alone form a response, he could feel his face heat.

"Uuuuuuh," No, that wasn't it, Lovino was frowning, shit "I don't know, I could try?"

Lovino nodded, his head still against Antonio's shoulder.

* * *

Lovino was unsure why he'd just decided to snuggle-no, he wasn't snuggling dammit he was...fuck okay he was. He was just too tired and too stressed to pretend that he didn't like him and he just needed to cuddle up to someone and the usuals were too far away...FUCK, no, he didn't have usuals he had just hugged Feliciano, Femke, Marcello and his father once, twice,maybe twenty times...but that was when he was a child!

In the end he just stayed where he was and prayed that no one would notice. It didn't look like Antonio had because he hadn't brushed Lovino off, Lovino knew that he would have brushed Antonio off given a similar situation. He completely buried his face between Antonio's warm shoulder and neck subconsciously out of embarrassment, yeah, no one would notice.

* * *

He hadn't moved from that spot on his shoulder, so Antonio didn't move. He'd given himself a migraine, for the rest of the morning, the entire afternoon and late into the evening he'd been trying as hard as he could to move, but the problem was that he didn't know what it was that Lovino needed, so he'd just been focusing on Lovino which was nice for a while but concentrating as hard as he could over several hours had ultimately just led to the worst headache he'd had in his entire life so in the end he went to sleep.

When he awoke Lovino wasn't there.

* * *

Lovino had been taken to the other Captain's quarters, he'd been awoken unceremoniously by a young man with a blank face, not the one who'd held him steady the previous day but they looked a little similar.

Mathias swaggered into the room and Lovino frowned at him, he wasn't a morning person at the best of times and dammit he certainly wasn't going to be friendly to the bastard who had his crew held hostage, but he couldn't risk his crew's life just because this prick couldn't wait until an acceptable hour of the morning before talking to him.

"Good morning, Captain Vargas" Mathias grinned

"Is it?" Lovino hissed

"No, not really, not for you anyway," He replied "Your father's taking a long time to respond, so we were," There was a cough from the man who was stood behind him "Lukas had the idea that you write another letter so they know we have you"

* * *

Lovino could be hurt and scared and alone, he must be lonely, really lonely, really really lonely. Really really really lonely and scared and alone and hey...when did his wrists get free.

He looked over to Gilbert and Francis who looked really startled. Antonio had managed to not only get loose but also move a foot away from where he sat less than a second before hand.

"H, how?" Gilbert asked, but Antonio quickly pretended to still be tied to the twist of metal.

"Shh, I'll explain later"


	24. Chapter 24 Antonio the witch

**I still don't own Hetalia. Thanks for reading and reviewing and such, I'll be updating as often as possible. Unfortunately I've had to defer my place at university for a year so I'm looking for a job, but there aren't a lot going around my local area. This chapter contains my first attempt at writing a proper kiss and I'm very very sorry in advance.  
**

When Lovino returned he noticed that Antonio had a grin on his face, a stupid looking grin that was half pleased to see him and half ridiculously proud of himself...Lovino didn't even want to know what kind of idiot plan he had. He was lashed to the metal again by Lukas and he waited patiently for him to leave before turning his attention to his crew. "Right, Bastards. I've sent a letter to my father, so he should be coming to help us"

"No need" Antonio beamed, oh brilliant, it looked like Lovino was going to get his dearest wish and hear Antonio's plan.

"Why?" Lovino growled

"Antonio's a witch!" Gilbert exclaimed, Lovino had forgotten that the man was extremely religious and Lovino wasn't all that pleased to have a witch on his ship.

Francis shushed him but also looked afraid. "He moved" Francis said, looking extremely worried.

"Yes, people do that" Lovino spat.

"I did it Lovi," Antonio crowed, looking very proud of himself "I can control it, I moved!" he nodded to his hands which were pressed to the cold steel but completely un bound.

"Y, you weren't lying..." Lovino gasped. If Antonio was telling the truth then he must be a witch or a ghost and he was some kind of monster and OH MY GOD he was in love with a monster who was capable of killing them all and shitshitshitshitshitshitshit_shit._

Miraculously Antonio seemed to notice that the entire crew were fucking terrified of him.

"I'm not a witch or anything, it's, it's a curse of sorts I guess" Antonio explained.

However sailors of all sorts even the illegal ones are extremely superstitious and the moment the word curse left Antonio's lips the crew fell into complete chaos.

"We're all going to die?"

"Who did you piss off to get cursed?"

"Why didn't you warn us"

"I was wondering how the fuck you got here"

"I assumed he was a stowaway"

"How? You saw him on the fucking dock"

"Are we all cursed now?"

Antonio hadn't realized that his admission was going to cause this amount of trouble. He knew that at this time witch craft was a touchy subject but he hadn't expecting screaming and oh God some of the crew members were actually crying.

"I'm not going to hurt you, I'm going to help you escape!" Antonio cried desperately, eventually the chaos died down.

"I may not have known him long but Toni won't hurt us" Francis assured the crew after he'd calmed down and despite his fear Gilbert nodded alongside him, friends were friends even if they were cursed.

The crew were placated but they still eyed Antonio nervously.

"We'll wait for nightfall and I'll get everyone loose" Antonio grinned, trying to look more friendly than usual because he didn't want to spark it all off again.

* * *

By the time night fell, the crew had established a plan...a bit of a plan...okay, a fragment of a plan. Basically Antonio was to untie them all and then they were going to somehow over power the other crew (Hopefully utilizing the Scandinavian crew's plan from when they took Lovino's ship) and then sail off into the sun rise as free men and women.

Simple enough, only some of the Nordic crew just would _not _go to sleep. Lukas and his brother Emil weren't even doing anything important. Lovino had been glaring at them for fuck knows how long but the pair weren't shifting and Lukas even had the gall to glare right back at the Italian. Eventually the pair made their way below decks. Antonio lurched to his feet beside Lovino. "Not now, idiot!" Lovino hissed "Wait and see if anyone else comes"

Antonio sat back down and looked over his shoulder at the other crew members "I don't think I should make them wait any more" he said but still waited for a few moments before he got back to his feet.

* * *

Antonio hadn't stood up for a good few days and needless to say, he had some pretty intense pins and needles running up and down his feet and legs. He needed to work quickly because, as Lovino had so kindly reminded him, there were enemies on this ship and possibly on the next.

"You're not allowed to die, okay?" Lovino ordered from the floor. Antonio looked down to see a pair of fiery amber eyes glaring up at him. A considerably softer green pair were also looking at him as Femke nodded next to Lovino.

Antonio knelt down next to Lovino and grinned "If I didn't die on the island what makes you think I'll die here?"

Lovino shouldered him "You were on that island for three days, bastard!" and then he pressed his lips to Antonio's.

Antonio beamed at him and Lovino flushed a deep scarlet.

"Antonio, I, you" he spluttered before scowling, annoyed that he was seemingly unable to convey the words he had in his head "You'd better not die, Bastard" he finished with finality before leaning forward and pressing his lips to Antonio's.

The action was sudden and unexpected...by both parties if the look on Lovino's face was anything to go by. Antonio smiled and looped an arm around Lovino's waist while the other snaked around his shoulder.

There was a loud wold whistle. The pair broke away embarrassed just in time to see Francis elbow Gilbert roughly in the ribs.

"Just get us untied" Lovino growled, refusing to make eye contact and instead staring at the deck he was sat on.


End file.
